Loosen End ::previous: BtVS S7 Version 2::
by Cynthia Taz
Summary: Rewrite of BtVS Season 7. New evil raised in Sunnydale. Tara reappeared. After all the dark, will the Scoobies find the light and win again? ::sorry, suck at summary::
1. Prologue

**BtVS S7 Version 2**

**Prologue**

by Cynthia Taz (cynthia_taz@yahoo.com) 

Homepage: 

-- 

Summary: 

--Rewrite of BtVS Season 7. New evil raised in Sunnydale. Tara reappeared. After all the dark, will the Scoobies find the light and win again? *sorry, suck at summary* 

Rating: 

--G (?) 

Disclaimer: 

--All characters, sites and such from 'Buffy, The Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' belong to Joss Whedon, UPN, WB, and et al. All other new stuff belongs to the author (Yah me!). This story is not sell or for any profit. 

Notes: 

--This actually started from S7.03 Same Time Same Place, except all the stuff you saw about Willow's in England. The whole thing kinda focus on Willow and Tara (What can I say? I like them and it still kinda bug me that the First won't 'use' Willow - after all, she was the big bad in S6. And hey! Why wait for whole yr before attacking the gang? If the attack started at S6 it would be way much easier. And the whole Kennedy deal? Not that I don't like her, but their relationship just a bit - um - spooky... well, except on the ep 'Killer in Me' it's kinda touchy, but still... say I'm stupid or whatever, it just not really convincing and- okay, off topic again... shut up now...) and hopefully it won't be too confusing if you haven't watch S7. I may or may not stick on the original one (probably only some...). Everything just very much depends on how things go... Just drop me a line and tell me what you think. Thx. 

**// // = Voice** *** 

Prologue 

*** 

Wrapping her legs with her own arms, Willow Rosenberg, the hacker, the witch, and more importantly, the latest Big Bad of Sunnyhell, rocking slightly on the bed in a small dark room. She had came here to Bath, England with the ex-watcher Rupert Giles a week ago, right after her attempt of ending the world on the Kingman's Bluff, trying to 'get better' from her addiction of dark magic and also to gain control of her own power. Not that she cared much, she had been living in her own guilt and grief since that day, believing that there's nothing she could do to repay for what she had done, believing that she was doomed for eternity. 

//Willow?// 

Willow frozen when she heard the familiar voice, the voice that she had longed to hear again. She looked up, and saw a familiar figure standing outside the window. 

"Wha- Tara?" The redhead blinked and rubbed her eyes. "No... no..." She looked down, hiding her head in between her knees, rocking faster. "It's hallucination... it's not real... it's not real..." 

//Willow. Look at me.// 

"No... you're not here... you're dead... I saw you dead... no..." 

//Willow plea-// 

"Willow?" Giles opened the door, and saw Willow rocking on her bed, again. Every night when he checked on the redhead, she would be in the same position, rocking, rumbling something under her breath. The watcher sighed, and walked closer to her. "Willow?" He put his hand on her shoulder, squeezed it gently, trying to get her attention. 

Willow frozen again. After a minute, she finally looked up. It took her another whole minute to finally be able to focus on the man in front of her. Giles smiled sadly. "Willow." 

"G-Giles?" 

"It's late. Shouldn't you be sleeping?" He asked kindly. He turned and looked at the already cold herb tea on the nightstand. "You haven't drunk it." He said it as a statement, not question. 

"I..." Willow looked at Giles, then turned towards the window, and turned back again. "It makes me feel funny." She whispered. 

"It supposes to help you to relax and sleep, Willow." 

"But I..." Willow looked down, not sure what to say. 

"Willow, please." Giles took the glass from the nightstand and handed it to Willow. "You need to rest. You still have class tomorrow, remember?" 

"I don't deserve it." She whispered. 

"You deserve it." Giles said firmly. "You deserve a second chance. C'mon." He held the glass closer to Willow. "Drink it, then rest. We'll talk tomorrow, okay?" 

Willow stared at Giles. Finally, she un-wrapped herself and took the glass with her shaking hands, and drank it. 

Giles took the now empty glass and put it back on the nightstand, helped Willow to lie down, and carefully covered her with a blanket. 

"Good night Willow." 

"Good night." Willow whispered, and closed her eyes. Giles took the empty glass and walked out quietly. 

After hearing the soft click sound from the door, Willow opened her eyes and stared at the window, until the darkness claimed her finally. 

//Willow...// 

*** 

Willow walked slowly along the hills, enjoying the beautiful views in front of her. She had familiarized the surrounded area after all these months staying with the Coven. She no longer imprisoned herself in the castle, but instead finding every chance to get away from it. She sat under a big oak tree, concentrating on the ground. After a second, a flower grew at an un-natural speed in front of her. 

//Is that for me?// 

Willow smiled brightly and turned to the voice. "Hi Babe." 

Tara smiled, and sat beside her. 

//It's beautiful.// 

"Not as beautiful as you." Willow stared at Tara for a moment, then turned her attention back to the flower. "Want me to grow you a willow tree? I can do a tree. Tree is good. Big and beautiful and good." 

Tara laughed softly. 

//Honey. I don't need a willow tree. I've you, remember?// 

"I'm a bad tree." Willow said softly, then paused. "I miss you." She whispered. 

//That's why you skip your class, *again*?// 

Tara thought for a moment. 

//Well, at least I know now that I'm more important then your head.// 

"I'm not that bad." Willow pouted. 

//Yes you are.// 

Tara smiled. 

//You won't miss one even your head's on fire.// 

Willow smiled, enjoying the quiet moment between them. 

"That doesn't belong there." A new voice rose from aside. 

Willow's smile lost. "No it doesn't." She said quietly. 

"Passafloracoerulea, native to Paraguay, if my botany serves." Giles said, sitting beside Willow, taking up the spot Tara had just sat on. 

"Is there anything you don't know about?" 

"Synchronized swimming. Complete mystery to me. Other than that, I know all." He smiled, examining the flower. "Where did it come from?" 

"Paraguay." 

"You brought it through the earth." 

"It's all connected. The root systems, the molecules, the energy... everything." 

"You sound like Ms. Harkness." 

"She's taught me a lot." 

"Then why aren't you at your lesson?" 

"I'm sorry." She said quietly. 

"It's all right. She was just afraid that yo-" 

"Had gone evil? Yeah, I was gonna destroy the world, but lunch made me sleepy." She snapped. 

"She didn't think that. She was just-" 

"Afraid. They all are. The Coven is... they're the most amazing women I've ever met. If it wasn't for them, and you... But there's this look they get, like I'm gonna turn them all into bangers and mash or something." Willow frowned. "Which I'm not even sure what that is." 

"They're cautious. I trust you can understand that." 

"I don't have that much power, I don't think. I was... drained by what happened." 

"But everything's connected. You're connected to great power, whether you feel it or not." 

"You should just take it from me." Willow stood up and started walking away. Giles quickly followed. 

"You know we can't. This isn't a hobby, or an addiction. It's inside you now, this magic. You're responsible for it." 

"Will they always be afraid of me?" 

"Maybe. Can you live with that?" 

"I deserve a lot worse." 

"That's not an answer." 

"I killed people, Giles." 

"I've not forgotten." 

"When you brought me here... I thought it was to kill me. Or lock me in some mystical dungeon for all eternity, or with the torture... instead, you go all Dumbledore on me, I'm learning about magic, I'm all about energy and gaia and root systems." 

"Do you want to be punished?" 

"I wanna be the one Tara loves." She whispered. 

"You are." Giles smiled sadly at her. "You will always be the one she loved." Putting his hand on her back, he guided Willow back into the castle. Willow turned, watching Tara stood under the tree, staring at her. 

*** 

Willow climbed out of the window quietly, not risking any chance to wake anyone up in the castle. Walking along the path, she finally reached her destination - the same oak tree she had been sitting under every time she got a chance. 

"I should tell them that you're back." Willow said quietly, not waiting for her to show up, knowing that she would appear immediately. 

//Sweetie, remember what happened last time you told them?// 

Tara walked closer towards the redhead witch. Slowly, she sat beside her, the way they met every time. 

"How can I forget?" Willow frowned at her memory. "I almost ended up in an mental institution." She said quietly. "But... what if they don't trust me? I can't even trust myself." 

//They will.// 

"May be you can app-" 

//If they know, they'll try to take you away from me.// 

"Bu-" 

//Don't you trust me?// 

"With my life." 

//Then do what I said. It's for the best.// 

Willow paused. She slowly moved her hand towards Tara's, but it when through her. "I wish I could touch you." Her eyes filled with tears. 

//Me too.// 

"Do you think Buffy and the others will forgive me?" 

//Whatever happens, you'll still have me. Always.// 

Willow smiled. 

*** 


	2. Chapter 1

**BtVS S7 Version 2**

**Chapter 1**

by Cynthia Taz (cynthia_taz@yahoo.com) 

* Disclaimer and other information on Prologue. 

** // // = Voice **

# # = Time, Place 

*** 

**# 21:23, Sunnydale Airport #**

Buffy, Xander and Dawn were all standing outside the gate in the Sunnydale Airport, waiting. Buffy kept pacing, Dawn kept looking around, while Xander was holding a white sign with 'Welcome Back Willow' written on it. 

"Do you think she will get the sign?" Xander asked nervously. 

"Get the sign?" Buffy raised an eyebrow. "I don't even think she'll *see* the sign." 

"Why is it so pale?" Dawn asked. 

"I used yellow crayon. It was a thing from when I talked to Willow on the bluff. I hope she gets it." 

"Oh. Tell us again what you said." 

"Well, I was talking from my heart and I knew evil Willow wasn't real-" Xander looked at Dawn's face. "You were kidding." 

"Um... a little bit." She smiled. 

"We've heard the crayon speech a few times." Seeing the disappointment on Xander face, Buffy added. "Not that it's not great, of course." 

"I saved the world with talking from my mouth. *My* mouth saved the world." Xander said proudly. 

Ignoring Xander, Dawn stepped closer to the gate. "I'm getting nervous. Are you nervous?" 

"Yeah. It's gonna be weird seeing her." Buffy frowned. "What do you say to someone in this situation?" 

"I'm gonna say, hi Willow." 

"C'mon. You're saying it's not going to the least bit strange?" Buffy whispered. "We saw her kill someone. She was about to kill Dawn-" 

"And Giles wouldn't let her leave unless she completed that whatever recovery course." 

"Right." Dawn said, then saw the guilty look on Buffy. "Right?" 

"She kinda didn't finish." 

"She didn't finish? She didn't finish being *not* evil?" Dawn eyes widened. 

"H-he said it was *really* important that she come back early and that she was doing *really* well and we shouldn't worry." 

"Guys, I just noticed something." Buffy and Dawn looked at Xander. "Everyone's off the plane, so where's Willow?" The three of them looked around at the waiting area, worried. 

*** 

**# 21:23, Sunnydale Airport #**

Willow walked out of the gate nervously. She looked around, trying to find her friends. When she couldn't find them, she sat on a chair nearby and waited. 

After some time, all the people from the plant were gone. The gate closed. Still, no Xander, no Buffy. "Welcome home me." She whispered. 

//Welcome home you.// 

Willow smiled sadly at Tara who was sitting next to her. 

*** 

**# 22:41, Summers' Residence #**

Willow knocked on the front door and waited. No one. She frowned, and went towards the backyard. She entered the house through the back door. Putting down her luggage, she shouted. "Hello?" 

The redhead witch walked towards the second floor and she entered her former room - the room that belonged to Buffy now. She sighed. Looking out of the window, she put her palm on the cool glass, the scene of Tara's death replayed inside her head, just like the way she had for all these months. The sound, the blood, the death; the rage, the confusion, the sorrow... 

She turned and looked at the photos around her. 

Buffy and Xander smiling. 

Buffy and Xander and Dawn, smiling. 

Giles and Buffy, smiling. 

Joyce, smiling. 

//No room for Willow.// 

She picked up the phone book on the desk, reading the first page with "FAMILY NUMBERS" written on it. 

Buffy's work. 

Xander's office. 

Dawn's cell. 

Giles. 

//No room for Willow.// 

A huge noise downstairs brought her back to reality. "Dawn? Is that you?" Willow dropped the phone book and rushed towards the front door. She looked around, and sighed again. No one. 

//No one for Willow.// 

She walked sadly towards the couch and lied down. Slowly, she closed her eyes, and let the darkness claimed her. 

*** 

**# 22:41, Summers' Residence #**

"Giles absolutely said he put her on the plane in London." Buffy frowned as she opened the front door. 

"So she got out in Chicago when they stopped?" Xander asked, stepping aside to let Dawn entered first. 

"She could have caught a flight anywhere from there." Dawn said, stepped inside the house. 

"Or she doubled back, got off the plan after Giles left in London." Buffy put her hand on her chin, thinking. 

"If she's doing that, ducking Giles... then she's evil, right?" 

"I avoided Giles tons of times and it just meant I was lazy, not evil." Xander protested. 

"Well, I hope you're right, because defeating lazy Willow probably less hard." Buffy said quietly. 

"We should check the messages, see if she tried to reach us here." Dawn supplied, still thinking if Willow's evil or not. 

"Good idea." The slayer smiled. Xander closed the door firmly, making a huge sound. 

THUMP! 

"What's that?" The trio froze at the sudden noise. 

"Upstairs." Buffy said, pointing at the second floor. 

"Willow? Is that you?" Xander shouted. The three of them walked slowly towards the second floor, and found nothing except a phone book on the floor. 

Walking back downstairs, Xander sat on the couch quietly. 

"She didn't leave a message." Dawn shrugged, sitting beside Xander. 

"I checked with Giles again. He hasn't heard from her." Buffy said, sitting beside her little sister. 

"Is he throwing a tasteful British wiggins?" Xander gave her a small smile. 

"With extra wig." Buffy sighed. "I think he's blaming himself pretty hard. Like, he should've known she wasn't ready. I kept telling him it wasn't his fault. I mean, maybe it's something about us she couldn't face-" 

"Like she didn't think we were ready to forgive her?" Xander supplied, then sighed. "I get that." 

"So Giles is blaming Giles and we're blaming us. Is anyone gonna blame Willow?" 

Xander and Buffy looked at Dawn, shocked. 

"Oh, don't give me shock faces. I mean, what I want to know is, will anyone around here ever ask for help when they need it? Instead everyone just keeps secrets, and suffers alone, and then we're supposed to be all sympathetic when they start ripping the skins off people or dragging their sisters into the basement!" Dawn paused, then frowned. "I may have some stuff to work through." 

"Undoubtedly." Buffy recovered from her shock. "But you do have a point." 

"I thought I might." 

"If Willow's flipped out, it's her bad. We can only be here for her so much if she won't be, you know," Buffy looked at her sister and her friend. "Here." 

The three of them looked up at the ceiling together, lost in their thoughts. 

*** 

**# 09:28, Summers' Residence #**

"Yes... hello. I'm calling for Giles-" She shook her head a bit. "Um... Mr. Giles. Right..." Her face fell. "The Council meeting... No, I know he can't be reached there. Thanks. Bye." Putting down the phone, Willow sighed. She turned, and looked around at the empty house. 

*** 

**# 09:51, Magic Box #**

"Anya!" 

Anya, who was carrying a box of damaged merchandise walking out from the Magic Box, looked up when she heard someone calling her. Her eyes widened with fear when she saw Willow. Without second thought, she stepped back and tried to run. 

//She's scared of you, Willow.// 

"Don't Anya! Please don't run away." Willow prayed, walking closer to the vengeance demon slowly, not wanting to scare her more. 

"What are you doing here?" Anya took a few more steps back, and said in a fearful voice. "I thought you were with Giles studying how to *not* kill people." 

"I just got back." 

"And you're back 'cos you're all better or you're back to bring about a fiery apocalypse of death?" 

"Neither." She said hopefully. "But I have been studying. Working real hard..." 

//Except skipping couple classes...// 

"I'm going to be fine." Willow smiled a bit, trying to ensure the vengeance demon. 

"Oh good. Because I remember the last time you said that. I've spent a lot of the time since then cleaning the debris out of my ex-livelihood, stuff like that." 

"I want to help any way I can with that. I feel really responsible." 

"You feel really responsible?! You are really responsible! You broke my store! Plus, you killed two people." Anya said angrily. 

//You're the one who talked.// 

Willow frowned a bit, stared at the now destoryed shop behind Anya, then turned her attention back to her. "I know I hurt you, and everyone. I'm sorry." 

"Here's a little something you should know about vengeance demons. We don't groove with the 'sorry'. We prefer the 'oh God, please stop hitting me with my own rib-bones'!" 

"Go on. Say whatever you want. Rib-bones and so forth. I deserve it." 

"And you won't mind?" 

Willow shook her head. "No." 

"Well then that's no fun!" Anya pouted. 

"Sorry." The redhead sighed and sat on the curb, watching the Sunnydale street sadly. 

Anya sighed. She put down her box, sat quietly beside Willow. Willow smiled a bit. 

"So," Willow tried to keep her tone casual. "Um, where is everybody these days?" She turned around, picked up a small demon head bone from the box, and start playing with it. 

"Well, I'm back in my own apartment. And of course vengeance takes me all over the world. I was in Brazil yesterday. They love their soccer." Anya said, watching the street also. 

"And... the others? Dawn and Xander and Buffy? Do you know where they are?" 

"You haven't seen them?" Anya asked, feeling a little surprised. 

"Not so much." She said sadly, still playing with the demon head, but her eyes kept watching the street. 

//Quick! Put it back!// 

Sensing the urgent tone in Tara's voice, she looking down, and found the cause. The horn on the head was broken. Her eyes' widened, and put it back into the box immediately. 

Luckily, Anya didn't noticed. "Huh, guess they're still mad at you. They've been a little temperamental lately, just between you and me. We had a bit of a mix-up a few days ago-" 

//We should find the others.// 

"Right. Where do you think they'd be?" Willow asked Tara, but Anya answered her. 

"Oh, at the new high school, probably. Everyone's all about the high school right now. Buffy's got some kind of job helping junior deviants. Spike is insane in the basement, and Xander's doing construction there on the gym." 

Willow turned to Anya. "Spike's what in the what-ment?" 

"Insane, base. And Xander does construction. He likes to start early so he's probably there by now." 

"Oh." 

*** 

**# 10:32, Sunnydale High Construction Pit #**

Walking near to the site, Willow couldn't help but aware how desert it was. There was no one nearby, no noise, no nothing. It scared her a little, especially since Tara had disappeared after they left the Magic Box. 'C'mon Rosenberg. What's your problem? You're a Scooby, remember?' She carefully climbed down the ladder into the pit. "Xander?" She shouted. "Are you there?" 

She walked slowly, looking around. Suddenly a familiar smile hit her. She looked down, and saw skinless body lying in a pool of blood in front of her. 

*** 

**# 10:32, Sunnydale High Construction Pit #**

"No skin." Buffy and Xander stood in front of the skinless body, staring at it. 

"Tough to look at." Xander said quietly, trying hard not to throw up. 

"And yet my eyes refuse to look away." Buffy rumbled. "Stupid eyes." 

"I found it first thing this morning. I gave my crew the day off, called you right away." 

"I gotta find a job where I'm not the one called right away for this stuff." 

Xander turned and looked at the ladder behind him when he heard footsteps. 

"Do you know what I'm thinking?" 

"Yeah, I know *exactly* what you're thinking." Xander turned back and stared at the body again when he couldn't see anyone. "Maybe Willow's back." 

*** 

**# 10:46, corner near Sunnydale High Construction Pit #**

Willow ran. 

She never ran that fast before. 

Not even when she was chased by vampires. 

She couldn't take it anymore. She stopped at the corner of the street, bend down and puked. Her eyes filled with tears. 

//Are you alright?// 

Willow looked up and saw Tara staring at her. 

"I'm fine." She wrapped up her tears. "Sorry. I just-" 

//No need to explain to me Will.// 

The witch smiled a bit. "Guess bathroom visit is in order, huh?" 

*** 

**# 11:02, Sunnydale High basement #**

//Are you sure you want to do this?// 

"I have to." Willow said, putting her resolve face on. 

The two of them walked slowly in the maze like basement. Willow looked around, trying to find Spike. "Tara?" 

Tara looked at the redhead witch. 

"Thank you." 

//For what?// 

"For being here... for being with me." 

Tara said nothing, but smiled. They stopped when they heard someone rumbling something in front of them. Willow stepped closer to the source. 

"Spike?" 

She turned to the corner, but saw nothing. She turned back. 

"AHH!" 

"Out! This is my place! You need permission to be here! You need a special slip with a stamp!" 

"Spike?" Willow calmed herself down when she saw it was Spike who suddenly appeared in front of her. "My God, Spike. Anya said... what happened to you?" 

"Can't you see?" He said angry. "Read it on my face! Look!" 

"I don't-" 

"You go off and try to wall up the bad spots, put your heart back in where it fell out, and you call yourself finished, but you're not. You're worse than ever, you are." 

Suddenly, Spike looked calmed, then turned and stared at the empty space nearby. "You went away." 

"I did. I needed to go. But I'm back, and I just found... there's a body..." 

"Tragedy." Spike turned back at stared at Willow. "Is there blood?" 

"Um, yeah. And I can't find Buffy or Xander or Dawn and now there's something killing people. The victim was skinned. What would do that?" 

"You did it once. I heard about it." 

Willow heart skipped a beat. "Anything other than... other than me?" 

"Lots of things like skin. I mean, who doesn't like skin?" 

"What kinds of things? I have to know. Is there anything else that could have done this?" 

Spike stared at the empty space again. 

"Look at you, glowing. What's a word means glowing? Gotta rhyme." 

"Spike?" Willow frowned. 

Spike suddenly tensed again. "I should hide, hide from you. Hide my face. You know what I did." 

"What you did? You didn't do this." Willow paused. "Did you?" 

"Not the time. Not the time. Probably better left unsaid anyway. Unsaid things grow healthy in the dark, little tadpoles..." Spike eyes widened. "Everyone's talking to me, no one's talking to each other." 

"Please, try to listen to me..." 

"Someone isn't here." Spike smiked, and started pacing. "Button, button, who's got the button? My money's on the witch. Red is a bad girl. They made her go away, you know. She told me. Shh." 

"Spike. I'm... I'm sorry about whatever... but I think I should go." Willow turned and started to walk away, but stopped when she heard Spike's words. 

"They think you did it." 

Willow turned. 

"The Slayer and her boy. They think you took the skin." 

*** 

**# 11:03, Sunnydale High basement #**

"You can't use the blueprints to find your way around, down here. Seems like the walls move or something..." Xander sighed. 

"I think I hear him." Buffy said quietly. They turned around the corner, and saw Spike speaking angrily. 

"...and you call yourself finished, but you're not. You're worse than ever, you are." 

"Spike." Nothing. "Spike!" Buffy shouted. 

Spike turned, and calmed a bit when he saw Buffy. "You went away." 

"Yeah. You scared me a little, in the church. I'm... I had to think. I didn't know what to think." 

"We're here for a reason, Spike." Xander said. 

"Tragedy." Spike turned and stared at the space at his right side. "Is there blood?" 

"He knows. He must have seen the body." 

"You did it once. I heard about it." Spike continued to talk to the air. 

"We need to know who did it. Who skinned the boy out there?" Buffy tried to reason. 

"Did you hear anything or see anything?" Xander stepped closer. 

"Lots of things like skin. I mean, who doesn't like skin?" 

Spike suddenly turned back and stared at Buffy. "Look at you, glowin'. What's a word means glowing? Gotta rhyme." 

"Spike, please..." 

Spike suddenly tensed again. "I should hide, hide from you. Hide my face. You know what I did." 

"Boy, he's extra useful today..." Xander started to make another comment but Buffy stopped him. 

"This isn't the time." 

"Not the time. Not the time. Probably better left unsaid anyway. Unsaid things grow healthy in the dark, little tadpoles..." Spike eyes widened. "Everyone's talking to me, no one's talking to each other." 

Buffy sighed. "We might as well go." They turned and started to walk away. 

"Someone isn't here." Spike smiked, and started pacing. "Button, button, who's got the button? My money's on the witch. Red is a bad girl. They made her go away, you know. She told me. Shh." 

Buffy and Xander stopped, exchanged a look. 

"Willow. He's talking about Willow." 

"And that means something because he's chock-full-o-sanity." They turned and stared at Spike again. 

"Well, it doesn't exactly make it less likely. Maybe he saw her." Buffy said. 

"They think you did it." He paused. "The Slayer and her boy. They think you took the skin." 

"Spike, is there something here? Something that killed?" Buffy frowned, trying to make sense of his words. 

Xander, on the other hand, was focusing on a total different issue. "'Her boy'? I'm 'her boy'?" 

"I have to go." Spike stepped back a little. "There's things here without permission and I have to check their slips, make sure they have authorization." He ran off, leaving a very confusing Buffy and Xander there. 

*** 

**# 11:44, Sunnydale Main Street #**

Willow wondered around the Sunnydale street, trying to figure out what to do next. "What should I do Tara? I mean, we need to do something." 

//You mean you.// 

Willow stopped and stared at the blonde. "I..." Then sighed. "Yeah. I mean *I* need to do something." Feeling defeated, she started walking again. "May be a spell?" 

//Locating spell?// 

Willow nodded. "Someone should do it with me, make sure I'm okay." 

//You can do it yourself. It's a simple spell.// 

Willow stopped and stared at the blonde again. "You know I couldn't." 

//Not could. Won't.// 

Tara paused. 

//You're scared.// 

"Tara, you know what I did. How can anyone be *not* scared? How can *you* be *not* scared?" The redhead snapped. 

//I 'm dead. What do you except?// 

Willow paused, the shadow of losing Tara again started swallowing her. "I'm sorry I snapped." She whispered like a child seeking for forgiveness. 

Tara said nothing, but watching Willow as she stared at the ground, feeling ashamed. After a whole minute, Tara broke the silence. 

//We should get going.// 

"Yeah." Willow said quietly. She was still staring at the ground, as if afraid that Tara would be gone if she looked up. 

//It's lunch time. Go get something to eat.// 

Willow nodded, walking towards the Summers' house, not aware of the strange look she got from by passers who saw her keep talking to herself. 

*** 

**# 16:12, Anya's Apartment #**

"Alright! Keep your underpants on!" Anya shouted as someone pounding at her door. She rushed towards and opened it. 

"I need help." Willow, standing in the corridor, said quietly. 

"I don't have any money." Anya said. 

Willow frowned, feeling ignored. "I don't want money!" She said, stepped inside the apartment without waiting for Anya's permission. 

"Come in. Enjoy my personal space." Anya said angrily. 

"I found a dead body near the high school." 

"Yes, that can happen." Anya shrugged, walking towards the boxes in the apartment and started unpacking them. 

"Something horrible killed a boy, Anya! Took his skin off!" 

Both of them froze at the same them and stared at each other. "Was it you? NO!" They said at the same time. 

"With the skin thing, they're definitely going to think it was you. Buffy is, anyway." 

"Yeah." Willow sighed, running her hand through her hair. "Maybe she already does. I don't know. I just... I need to find whatever really did it. I need to do something right." 

"And so they'll see it wasn't you, right? I mean, that has to be part of it. Maybe you're even thinking, you kill this thing, they never even have to know about it, don't have to suspect you even for a minute?" 

"I... I don't..." Willow shook her head a bit. "When did you get all insightful?" 

"I'm surprisingly sensitive." 

"So... will you help me?" 

Anya sighed. "Is it difficult or time-consuming?" 

*** 

**# 17:31, Anya's Apartment #**

After closing the blinds carefully, Willow sat on the floor opposite to Anya, facing each other, with a Sunnydale map lying between them. 

"This isn't gonna get all sexy, is it?" Anya asked. 

"You'd be shocked." Paused. "Okay. You have your powder?" 

"Oh, I ate that." Willow stared at her. "I have it." 

"We scatter it over the map, and everywhere there's a demon, it makes a little light." Willow said, picking up a jar. 

"How pretty! Will it hurt the carpet?" 

"No." 

Willow closed her eyes and prepared herself. After some time, she opened her eyes. "Okay. Scatter." 

They scattered the powder onto the map. Little white lights started glowing on it. 

Anya pointed at one of the light spot. "Look! That's me! Hi me!" She waved at the light, feeling exciting. Then she pointed at the bright lights at the center of the map. "What's that huge clump?" 

"The high school. It's all Hellmouthy underneath." Willow kept staring at the map, trying to figure out where was the demon that killed that boy. 

"Yeah, things are stirred up lately." Anya frowned. "Is it... getting brighter or something?" 

"Smoke!" Willow jumped up as flame brusted out from the 'huge clump' of light. She stomped out the fire. 

"Okay, remember our talk about the carpet?" Anya said angrily. 

Willow ignored her, but picked up the map, studing it. "That could be it. It's strong. It's near the body, and by itself. Hiding in the woods, or a cave... there's a couple of good caves around there..." 

"I don't know, seems kinda thin to me." 

"That's why you teleport over there real quick like a bunn-" Willow stopped herself when she got the look from Anya. "-real quick, and see if I'm right." 

"Nope. Sorry. You damaged my carpet." Anya said, started clearning the carpet. 

"Anya! It would take, like, a millisecond." 

"I won't. Also. I can't." 

"You're a vengeance demon. Just teleport!" 

"Well, see... turns out, teleporting isn't a right, it's a privilege. I withdrew a vengeance spell last week and this is my punishment. I can only teleport for official business. Have to file a flight plan and everything." 

"Wow." Willow face fell. "I'm sorry. That must be hard." 

"Yeah, it bites a pretty big one. And the vengeance itself? It's not as fulfilling as I remember." 

"Really? Because I got the impression you enjoyed, you know," She got the look from Anya again. "Inflicting." 

"Well, see, causing pain sounds really cool, I know, but it turns out, it's really upsetting. It didn't used to be, but now it is." 

"Is it like, you're scared of losing that feeling again, and having it be okay to hurt people and then you're not in charge of the power anymore because it's in charge of you?" 

"Wow, that was really overdramatically stated, but yeah, that's it." 

"I get it. Believe me." Willow sighed, looking down at the carpet. 

Anya stared at the redhead witch. "I'm sorry, Willow. I wish it was better for you." 

Willow looked up and gave her a small smile. "You too." 

"It did get a little sexy, didn't it?" 

Willow paused, shook her head and changed the subject immediately. "I have to go find this monster." She took the map and walked towards the door. 

"Hey, Willow?" Willow turned around. "Isn't there another spell? I mean, you're trying to find Buffy and Xander. Couldn't we use a spell to do that?" 

"I did. I tried. But something went gaflooey and it didn't work." 

"What did it say?" 

"It said they don't exist." Willow said sadly, opened the door and left. 

*** 

**# 16:56, Summers' Residence #**

Xander and Buffy were sitting at the table, reading, while Dawn was sitting in front of the computer. The trio was busy researching on the body they found earlier. 

"I looked up demons that "skin" their victims and demons that "flay" their victims. Because, you know, same thing. There's a ton of prospects." Dawn said, busying typing on the keyboard. 

"Spike may have gone to the land of the twirly hand gesture next to the temple, but he was right. Everybody likes skin." Xander said, reading a book. 

"Anything else gone? Eyeballs or toenails or viscera?" Dawn paused when the other two stared at her. "That's guts." 

"She knows about viscera." Buffy told Xander. "Makes you proud." 

"Just skin." Xander turned to the slayer's sister. 

"Okay, I'll work on that." 

Buffy closed the book she was reading and went towards the weapon chest. She stared at her blades. Xander walked towards her. "What's up?" 

"I..." Buffy looked stressed. "I need to do something. And I just have this feeling in my gut-" 

"In your viscera." Xander corrected her. 

"-that we already know exactly who did this. And all this work, it's just us trying to talk ourselves into thinking Willow's alright." 

"She is." Xander frowned. 

"See?" 

"Hey Guys!" Dawn shouted, getting their attention. "I got a good one." 

Xander and Buffy walked towards Dawn and stared at the screen over her shoulder. 

"Demon called Gnarl. He's a parasite with these nasty long fingernails. He secretes something through them and he uses that to paralyze his victims. Then he cuts strips of skin off while they're still alive. He starts in the middle, like belly-button-centric, and works out. It takes hours." 

"We didn't find any strips of skin. Which, by the way, grh." Xander made a face. 

"You wouldn't." Dawn continued. "He eats them. That's why he's a parasite. It's like his natural food." 

"I don't know, Dawn. You're new at this-" Dawn stared at Buffy. "-and I get why you're proud of finding this, but I don't see why this guy is any more likely than all the others." 

"'Cos you guys never said 'pool of blood.'" 

"What?" 

"You get your skin ripped off, normally you'd end up in a pool of blood. You never mentioned one." 

"There were lots of spatters, no pool." Buffy was confused. 

"Then it's the guy. He laps up the blood. You could say it's like, his natural beverage." 

Xander stared at Dawn. "You're terrifying." 

Dawn smiled. "Now if we just knew how to find this thing." 

"We could ask around at Willy's-" 

"Or we could be smart." Buffy paused, and turned to Xander. "Sorry, Xander." 

"What?" 

Buffy changed the subject immediately. "Whoever did this, they had to get blood on them. And they'd leave a trail-" 

"Right, minute traces of blood." Dawn said. 

"-and we have a way to track it." 

"We have a-" Dawn thought for a moment. "Oh. I get it." 

"What? How?" Xander looked between the sisters. "What's going on?" 

*** 

**# 18:47, Sunnydale Woods #**

"William's a good boy. Carries the water, carries the sin. It's supposed to yet easier. It's supposed to help to help. 'Cept it doesn't. And it's still so heavy-" Spike kept mumbling while Xander, Dawn and Buffy followed him right behind, trying to trace the demon. 

"We should've put him on a leash." Xander told Buffy. 

"Yeah, let's tie ourselves to the crazy vampire!" 

"Really think it's working?" Xander asked again, staring at the back of Spike. 

"It's pretty easy. Spike follows the exciting smell of blood. We follow the fairly ripe smell of Spike." 

"It's smellementary!" Dawn beamed, ignored the strange look given by the other two. "Also, I bet there's tons of stuff like this, procedures we can use that don't involve spells, just good solid detective work. Like, we could develop a database of tooth-impressions and demon skin samples. And I could wear high heels more." 

"Wow, that was so close to being empowered." Buffy smiled at her sister. 

"Well, everyone wants a slender ankle." Dawn shrugged. 

"Oof." Xander rushed into Spike's back who stopped suddenly. 

"This is it. End of the line, everyone off." Spike turned and stared at Xander. "Keep your ticket. You'll need that." 

"This is a rock cliff." Buffy stared at the cliff in front of them. 

"Hey, Buffy, give him a break. Maybe it's a vicious skin-eating rock cliff." Xander laughed. 

Spike stared at Xander, felling disgusted. "'S got a cave in it. Look." He pointed at small opening on the cliff nearby, then turned to Buffy. "I'm insane. What's his excuse?" 

*** 

**# 18:48, Sunnydale Woods #**

"We're here." Willow took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. 

//I don't like this. Don't go.// 

Willow gave Tara a sad smile. "I had to." 

*** 

**# 18:50, Sunnydale Woods - Cave #**

Xander, Buffy and Dawn carefully crawled through the small opening into the cave. It was large and dark, even with the moonlight shined through the hole at the ceiling. 

"Dark and dank. I was hoping it would be dark and dank-" 

"Shh." Buffy silenced Xander. "Listen. You hear that?" 

"I don't-" Xander paused. "I do now." 

"Something's moving." Dawn said, looking around. 

"Guess we're at the right place." 

*** 

**# 18:50, Sunnydale Woods - Cave #**

Willow looked around the dark cave, and started walking. She stopped suddenly when she heard some strange noise - something was moving inside the cave. 

"Look at the shorn lamb." A voice echoed inside the cave. "See how it trembles. Is it the cold wind? Or is it-" 

*** 

**# 18:50, Sunnydale Woods - Cave #**

"-that the flock is nowhere to be seen?" 

The trio looked around nervously. 

"Poor little lamb, all alone..." 

"You guys hear that?" Dawn asked. 

"Yep." Xander walked closer to Buffy. 

"It's echoing around. He sounds close but-" 

Suddenly a shadow launched at Dawn. Before anyone could react, a claw went throw Dawn's stomach, drawing blood. Dawn screamed. 

"DAWN!" Buffy and Xander rushed towards Dawn. Buffy held Dawn up while Xander guided them. 

"Where'd he go?" Xander looked around, frustrated. 

"Dawn, you okay?" 

Dawn looked down at her injured stomach, her face blank. "Paralyze..." She fell into Buffy's arms, unable to move. 

"Dawn!" Buffy turned to Xander. "We gotta get her out of here!" They held Dawn up, and carried her away quickly. 

"We can't deal with him now. Seal him in!" 

*** 

**# 18:51, Sunnydale Woods - Cave #**

"Who's there?" Willow looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. She walked deeper into the cave. 

The redhead witch turned when she heard some noise coming from the entrance. A huge rock came out from nowhere and blocked the only way out. "NO!" She shouted, rushing towards the small opening. "Stop!" 

Willow pounded on the rock, but it didn't move at all. She turned back, terrified, as laughter filled the cave. 

"No way out now. No way out." 

"Protect me, Goddess. In thy name, I supplicate myself. Take the powers from my enemy, and lay him lower than the lowest field." Willow waited, but nothing happened. 

"Gnarl loves spells. He keeps them as pets. They love him. And they leave him alone." The voice laughed. 

"You may be immune to magic, but I've got more than that." Willow said nervously. "You wanna fight?" 

"Your friends left you here." It said in a singsong voice. "No one comes to save you. They wanted me to have you." It laughed again. "Did they leave you as a gifty for me? Are you a tasty little gifty?" 

"Stop it!" Willow shouted. 

"Or did they just throw you away?" 

"Were they here?" Willow looked around, still trying to find the source of the voice. "Were my friends really here?" 

Suddenly a shadow launched at Willow. A claw went through Willow stomach. She fell back and sank to the floor. A short green-skinned creature with long fingernails and pointy ears stood in front of her. 

"They were here." It smiled, stepping closer to Willow. Willow couldn't move, but only staring at it helplessly. "Here they were. And there they went." It sang. "Gone, all gone, what a pretty song." It paused, stepped even closer to her, and pulled her leg, dragging her deeper into the cave. "They sealed you in with me. I love a gifty. Can't wait to unwrap it." 

*** 

**# 19:23, Summers' Residence #**

Buffy and Xander, one carrying Dawn's head, one carrying her legs, carefully walked into the house. 

"OK, watch the head." Buffy said while Xander slowly stepped inside. 

"Gotcha." 

"WATCH MY HEAD! WATCH MY HEAD!" Dawn shouted in a not so clear tone since she couldn't move her mouth. 

Buffy and Xander put her down to the couch, but face down on it. 

"FACE UP! FACE UP!" Dawn shouted again. 

"Oh right." Xander rolled her up. 

"Okay, I'm gonna check the computer. Find that page. See if there's an antidote." Buffy said, leaving the room and checked on the computer. 

"It'll be all right. We'll get you fixed up." Xander smiled at Dawn. "You'll be doing limbo in no time." 

"Yeah, as a pole." 

"No, not as a pole. I promise." 

"Oh, got it." Buffy shouted from the dinning room. "It says the paralysis is permanent." Dawn eyes widened - well, as wide as she could get in her state. "No, oh, wait, my bad. Permanent until the creature dies. Sorry." Buffy walked back to the living room. "Guess we have to go back." 

"We can't just leave her here like this. What if she vomits?" 

"I won't vomit." Dawn protested. 

"Do you think she'll vomit?" Buffy frowned, stepped back a little. 

"Stop talking about vomit!" 

"I'll call Anya. She can watch her." 

"Right, she'll love being called for vomit watch." Xander said. 

"Stop talking about vomit!" 

*** 

**# 19:23, Sunnydale Woods - Cave #**

"Gnarl makes a pretty picture." Gnarl slowly scratched through Willow's stomach. "It's easy when you know how. It's easy when everyone helps. They helped me." He licked the blood on his fingernails, smiling. "Too bad there's no one to help you." 

It turned it attention from his fingernails back to the stomach, slowly, it removed a strip of her skin from her wounds and ate it. It purred, then bent over and licked her wound. 

Willow lied there, helpless. She couldn't feel any pain, but she could hear the sound of the skin removing piece by piece from her, and the noise Gnarl was making while it sucked her blood. 

//Told you.// 

Willow looked up, and saw her dead girlfriend standing next to her. 

"I'm sorry..." Willow sobbed. 

//You never listen to me.// 

Tara smiled sadly. 

"I'm sorry..." 

//If you died, I'll be lost. Forever. You know that.// 

"No..." 

//Why are you doing this Willow? Why?// 

"Please babe..." Willow tried to move, tried to touch her, to do anything, but couldn't. "I'm sorry... I'm so so sorry..." 

//Do you want me to leave?// 

"NO! PLEASE!" But before Willow could say anything, Tara disappeared. "TARA!" 

*** 

**# 19:35, Summers' Residence #**

"I bet she's dying." Anya said, watching Dawn lying on the couch, helpless. 

"She's not dying. She's just paralyzed." Buffy protested. 

"Oh. Paralyzed how?" 

"Paralyzed how?" Xander frowned. "In the not moving way." 

"Well, there's lots of different ways. Did you try this?" Anya walked closer to Dawn, and lifted her legs up in 90 degrees. It held there and didn't fell. 

"Hey!" Dawn and Buffy shouted. 

"Oh! You're poseable." Xander smiled, picking up an sword from the weapon chest. 

"She's poseable?" Buffy picked up a can of nuts on the coffee table, watched in interest. 

"It's a common variety. Watch this." Anya rearranged Dawn so that she was sitting on the couch upright, her legs still hanging in the air. 

"Huh. Neat as you please. Hardly a need to undo her." 

"Where'd you get the nuts?" Buffy asked, her mouth full of nuts. 

"Brazil." Anya took the can from Buffy's hand. "No need to thank me, by the way, for sitting with her. I'm feeling very benevolent today. Helping Willow. Helping you. You might even call it even for that whole worm thing last week." 

"Yeah, I don't think-" Realization hit Buffy. "Wait, you saw Willow?" 

"Um-hmm. Oh, she's looking for you, by the way. Decided you might be out in some cave. Sounded pretty tenuous." Anya said causlly. 

"Cave?" Dawn asked. 

"Anya, listen." Buffy turned Anya around so she would be facing her. "This is really important. Did Willow go to that cave?" 

"Mm-hmm. Last time I saw her, that's where she was headed." Anya turned back to Dawn. "Shall I make her salute? That'd be very cute." 

"Xander, she could be there right now. Willow could be trapped with the Gnarl." 

"Uh, it's not 'the Gnarl', just 'Gnarl'." Anya played with Dawn's hand, making her into a salute pose. "Oh, wouldn't it be tragic if you were here being kinda silly with your comically paralyzed sister while Willow was dying?" 

Buffy picked up an axe from the chest. "Anya, you know about this creature?" Anya nodded. She handed Anya the axe. "You're coming with us." 

*** 

**# 19:58, Sunnydale Woods - Cave #**

Willow stared hard at the ceiling. She couldn't move, and Gnarl was immune to magic, but that didn't mean she couldn't work the way around. She was not about to die and lost Tara again. She focused on the rock hugging there, hoping that she would have enough energy to crack it, and with luck, it would hit the monster. The rock shook a little, but didn't fell. 

"C'mon." She focused harder. Suddenly, Gnarl jumped away from her, and ran towards something. 

*** 

**# 19:58, Sunnydale Woods - Cave #**

Buffy busted into the cave. Gnarl jumped up and rushed towards her. The slayer tried to cut him with her sword, but it jumped away and disappeared. 

Buffy looked around, trying to find Willow and Gnarl. "What's going on? Where's Willow?" 

"She's right here." Anya kneed down nearby. "Can't you see her? She's hurt!" 

"What? Where?" Xander kneed beside Anya, holding out his hands and felt around. "There's nothing here." 

"Your hand's going right through her." She turned to Buffy while Xander held his hands back immediately. "What's going on?" 

"I don't know, but I'm starting to get why we haven't seen her." 

"Because we haven't seen her." Xander shouted, still trying to figure out what to do. 

"Behind you!" Anya shouted. Buffy stepped back, just missed Gnarl's fingernails. 

"Close one." Buffy started attacking Gnarl again. 

"Remember what I said. Get him in the eyes." Anya turned back to Willow. "I'm here. Wow, you're really hurt." 

"What's going on?" Willow looked around but couldn't see anything except Gnarl jumping around. 

"Buffy's fighting the demon over there, see. But if they get too close, I'm gonna have to run." 

"I don't see." 

"But they're here. Buffy and Xander." 

"They came? They didn't leave me?" 

"No, they didn't leave you. They can't see you." 

"They're here. They're here. I'm not alone. I'm not alone..." 

"Good." Anya frowned. "You're doing really good." 

Buffy used a dragger to block out Gnarl's claw. Gnarl jumped, leaped over the slayer's head and landed behind her. Buffy turned and ducked, stabbed his foot with her dagger. Gnarl screamed, and without a second thought, Buffy plumbed her thumbs into his eyes. Gnarl was dead. 

"Ew. Ew. Thumbs? I can't believe you did that." Xander stared at the slayer, feeling disgusted. 

Anya turned to Willow. "Oh, Buffy killed the demon. It was gross." 

"I can... I can move. Oh..." Willow moaned, then closed her eyes, trying to block out the pain. 

"Willow? Are you here?" Buffy ran and stood beside Anya, looking around. 

"Where is she? Is she alive?" 

"She's right here." Anya looked at the wound on Willow's stomach. "She's hurt really bad, you guys. I'm gonna go get help." Without waiting, Anya left the cave immediately. 

"I think she's sort of-" Xander gestured, pointing at the area in front of him. "-here-ish." 

"Willow? W-we can't exactly see you, but we're really glad that you're back. I-I don't know how badly you're hurt, but-" 

Suddenly, Willow appeared on the ground in front of them, talking. 

"-I couldn't find you guys and I looked everywhere. And the demon said that you left me and-" Willow looked up. "Oh, there you are. There you are! Don't go away." 

"We're not going away." Xander said, and turned to see her wound. "Oh, God." 

"It's gonna be okay, Willow. You're gonna be okay." Buffy kneed beside Willow, trying hard not to cry when she saw Willow's stomach. 

Willow smiled sadly. 

*** 

**# 10:44, Summers' Residence #**

Willow sat on the bed in Buffy's old bedroom, meditating. Buffy walked up to the door, watching her for a minute, then turned away. But before she left, Willow opened her eyes. 

"Buffy." 

Buffy turned back, facing Willow. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." 

"That's all I had left in me anyway." 

Buffy walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. "I didn't realize meditating was such hard work." 

"I'm healing. Growing new skin." 

"Wow. That's magic, right? I mean, when most people when they meditate don't get extra skin, right? 'Cos Clem should, like, cut back." 

Willow smiled a bit. "It's magic. I'm drawing power from the earth to heal myself." 

"We're on the second floor." 

"You know Giles says everything's part of the earth. This bed. The air. Us." 

"Explains why my fingernails get dirty even when I don't do anything." 

"Plus you stuck your thumbs in a demon." 

"True." Buffy watched as Willow leaned back on the headboard, look exhausted. "You're wiped out. I should go." 

"No. Please stay." Willow prayed. "I missed you so much when I couldn't find you." 

"We missed you too. I missed you. Dawn's working on what caused the mutual no-see-ums, but so far we haven't-" 

"I did it." Willow looked down. 

Buffy stared at her best friend. "You did a spell?" 

"No!" Willow paused. "I mean, I didn't mean to. I-I just remembered thinking I wasn't ready to see you guys yet. I was afraid we wouldn't, you know, connect." 

"So, you made it happen just by thinking it?" 

"Guess I have a ways to go before I master my powers, huh?" Willow looked up at Buffy again. 

"It's OK. As long as you're all right." 

"It's nice to be forgiven. Too bad I need so much of it." 

"I have a confession to make." Willow looked at Buffy. "I thought it might be you. With the flaying." 

"I know." 

"I wanna be the kind of person that wouldn't think that. Xander never thought it." 

"I thought you were too tired." 

The redhead witch opened her eyes. "It hurts too much not to try." 

"I'm sorry." 

"It just takes so much strength. I don't have that much." 

Buffy thought for a moment, then took Willow's hands. "I got so much strength, I'm giving it away." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Will it help?" 

Willow nodded. "Much." 

Buffy sat cross-legged across Willow, and they started meditate together. 

Unknowing of those two, a three figure was standing near the nightstand, watching them. 

//Willow...// 

*** 


	3. Chapter 2

**BtVS S7 Version 2**

**Chapter 2**

by Cynthia Taz (cynthia_taz@yahoo.com) 

* Disclaimer and other information on Prologue. 

Notes: 

Thanks for everyone's feedback. I know that chapter 1 was kinda the same as the ep we had on TV. I actually tried not to change it much cos I really like that ep. Gnarl was so wicked cool!!! (~well, in a monster point of view) But actually starting from this chapter it will become more and more different from the orginal series... (some of the monsters and stuff may still be the same though...) Someon had also suggested me to change the name... actually I've some ideas, but nothing had finalized yet... if u got any suggestion feel free to tell me. ;p 

** // // = Voice **

[ ] = Flashback 

*** 

The morning sun shined warmly into the Summers' Residence. Buffy stood by the window in the kitchen, staring at the street, the words from her prophesy dreams replayed in her head again and again. 

[From beneath you, it devours.] 

She signed, having the last bite of her toast. The gang had been researching it for weeks. Still, nothing came up except the vision Willow had before she came back. 

[The earth...it's teeth... it's gonna open. It's gonna swallow us all.] 

The vision didn't get them to anywhere. All Willow saw was darkness, teeth, and well, darkness. All they knew were the hellmouth was going to open, more likely someone or something would try to open it. But when was the time that no one wanted to open it anyways? Well, at least now she could compare notes on her 'wicked-pain-in-the-ass' dreams with Willow's 'I-have-totally-no-idea-what-it-means' visions. 

The hellmouth itself was pretty quiet since Willow... By the end of the summer, things started to stir again but when she came back, well, let's just say the demons didn't really appreciate getting suck up all the energy by a black-eyed-gal who used to be a Scooby - the death of Rack had hit the demon population pretty hard, even harder than the news of slayer's best friend trying to end the world. 

Buffy still considered Willow as her best friend, but a fence - or more like a brick wall - had built around Willow, or at least in between them. Not only that Buffy had always wondered what should or shouldn't say around her, that she didn't know how to react around her, but the witch acted pretty much the same towards Buffy, as if afraid that the slayer would slay her if she just say a word wrong. The encounter with the Gnarl two weeks ago had helped a bit, but if you said that there was no tension between them, that would be a lie. 

Buffy didn't blame the situation on Willow though. Buffy knew part of it was her fault. Not only the downfall of her friend, but every time when Buffy looked at her, she always remembered the rage on her face when she murdered Warren, the evil expression when she threatened her sister, the smirk when she beat the crap out of the slayer in the Magic Box. Buffy wanted to forgive her, wanted Willow to become her best friend again, but how could she if deep down she was still afraid of her friend? 

Willow herself didn't help better. Ever since Willow came back, the only three expressions the blonde could get from her face were one: oh-God-I'm-a-bad-bad-person-I-don't-deserve-to-be-forgiven face; two: oh-God-I'm-a-bad-bad-person-I-don't-deserve-to-be-happy face; and three: oh-God-I'm-a-bad-bad-person-please-let-the-earth-open-up-and-swallow-me-whole face - which shouldn't be said aloud since they were on the hellmouth. At other times, it was either a "I-smile-so-you'll-feel-better-for-yourself-but-not-for-me" smile, or "I'm-Angel-the-Second-'cos-we-both-murdered-people" brooding. 

Buffy had already been informed by Giles before Willow was back in Sunnydale, that even though she was doing very well in the magic department, emotionally, she still had a long road to go. She still had nightmares, but at least she didn't have any hallucination or suicide attempts like she first arrived in England. Giles believed that she would do much better if she was with her family. Buffy believed that too. She just wasn't sure what to do, and she also had a really hard time not to believe that the real reason the ex-watcher sent her back now was because of the coming apocalyptic. 

"Hello." Xander walked into the room, effectively brought Buffy out of her thoughts. 

"Hi Xan." Buffy smiled. "Dawn's taking a shower. She should be down soon." 

"What about Willow? She said she wanted to..." 

"Oh." Buffy smile faded. "Today?" 

"Yeah. Tuesday." Xander paused. "She's getting better, right?" 

Buffy turned and poured herself and Xander a cup of coffee. "The wound? Yes. Others? No. Everything's just same old same old." 

"Thanks." Xander took the coffee from the blond, and frowned. "I thought Giles said she's better." 

Buffy sighed. "I guess something won't just go away that easy. At least she hasn't go all black-eye-gal on us." She paused. "Has she?" 

Xander shook his head. "Don't ask me. You're the one who live with her." 

"Live with who?" Dawn asked, walking into the kitchen. 

"Willow." 

"Oh." Dawn picked up a mug and wanted to pour herself some coffee but Buffy stopped her. "Hey!" 

"You're not old enough to have coffee." 

"I'm so not a kid!" 

"Go drink some milk." 

Dawn stared at Buffy for a second. "Fine!" She turned and walked towards the fridge. "I think she's doing much better." She added quietly. 

"I hope so." Buffy said, putting down her mug. "I'll go get her." She said, walking upstairs towards Willow's room. 

*** 

Buffy stood in front of the closed door, prepared to knock, but stopped when she heard someone talking inside. 

"...afternoon. Do you think they'll let me back this semester?" Paused. "Hey! That's not fair! I am *so* not going to skip- okay. I do back then but that's different. At least- who's there?" The door opened, and Willow smiled when she saw it was Buffy on the other side. "Hey. Xander's here?" 

Buffy nodded. "Um... we'll be gone in 15 minutes. Do you want me to get you something to eat first?" 

"That's all right. I have my herb tea this morning." 

"Um... okay." Buffy paused. "Not that I'm saying anything but... did you just talk to someone?" 

"Huh? NO! I mean, no. I'm not talking- well, I'm talking to you now but I haven't talk to anyone before... Not that I never talk to anyone b-" 

"I got you Will." The slayer knew her friend was lying, but she decided to drop it in the mean time. "Come down when you're done, okay?" Then, she left. 

Willow sighed, and closed the door quietly, rumbling, "I'm *so* going to blame you if they send me to an mental institution." 

*** 

Willow walked across the cemetery with Xander beside her. After dropping Buffy the school counselor and Dawn the student to the Sunnydale High, they went to visit Tara's grave, which Willow hadn't been before. The young witch had been physically and mentally drained that she couldn't attend her dead lover's funeral before going to England, and it was something that Willow had been regarded since then. 

"So..." It was the first time that Xander finally had time alone with his childhood friend since she came back. Not that he didn't want to talk, but there's always someone with her - Dawn, Buffy, Giles (or should say Giles' phone calls - Xander wondered how long the phone bill would be for the ex-watcher this month), and coding his phrase, 'for the love of God', even Anya, which was hellmouthly strange since they never got along before. Willow had been helping out fixing the Magic Box with Anya and Anya had been visiting the redhead couple times a week. Sometimes death can really changed people - and in this case, demon. "How are you? Truly?" 

"Okay. The magic is under contorl..." She frowned. "Mostly." 

"What about the non-magic part?" 

Willow said nothing. Her expression was blank and unreadable. It was times when Xander missed their childhood most. He wanted things to go back the way they used to be - big bad came, Buffy slay, they partied. He wanted Willow, not the magic-mama Willow or guilt Willow or certainly not the dark Willow, but the innocent and Xander friendly Willow when they were in the high school, or even better, before the high school, before they knew about slayers and demons and hellmouth. After several minutes, Willow finally spoke again. "Those kids are lucky to have Buffy looking out for them." 

"Huh?" 

"Buffy being counselor and all." 

"Oh." Okay. Subject changed. "Yeah. I guess." 

Xander stopped, so as Willow. "Ready?" Xander looked at her. 

Willow took a deep breath, and nodded. Xander stood there, watching as the redhead slowly walked towards Tara's grave. She sat in front of it, taking out several pebbles in her jacket and put them on her gravestone. 

*** 

"Hey." Willow stared at the name on the gravestone. 

Tara MaClay. 

October 16, 1980 - May 7, 2002. 

Willow slowly traced her name on the stone with her figure, her eyes welled with tears. "Guess it's the closest thing I can touch, huh?" 

//Pretty much.// 

Tara sat beside her. 

"I wish I can touch you, the real you." 

//When time is right. You'll get your chance. I promise.// 

"I'm worried." 

//Why?// 

"What if I lost control again?" 

//That's why I'm here babe.// 

Tara smiled. 

//As long as you listen to me, you'll be fine.// 

"I'm sorry..." She started crying. "I should have listen to you a long time ago... if I've, then we won't break up, and then we won't need to make up and-" 

//Willow... it doesn't matter now, as long as we're together.// 

Willow swallowed hard, and nodded. "Together." 

*** 

Anya stood in front of the mirror, watching herself as she washed her hands. Blood stained on her face, her neck, her clothes, her hands. Her expression blanked. Her eyes were empty, without any emotion. 

She sparked some water onto her face. When she looked up back into the mirror, she saw the water mixed with blood slowly tripped from her face. She wondered would it ever be clean again? 

*** 

"It's so lucky that the professor let me back to the class, ya know? I mean, I've missed almost half of it - okay, only half a month but still- Yeah. And she said she would give me some surprise quiz too! Isn't it exciting?" Willow walked down the UC Sunnydale campus, happily talking on the phone. Without looking, she bumped into someone. "Sorr- Anya?" 

Anya looked up. "Oh. Hi Willow." She greeted nervously. 

"Hey." Willow gave the vengeance demon a small smile. "What are you doing here?" 

"Oh." Anya looked around. "I have a new boyfriend now. He lives here." 

"Oh that's great." 

"Yeah, and we just had lots and lots of sex." 

"Um... okay." Willow stared at the strange expression on her face. 

"And we're tremendously happy together." Anya paused, holding up her hand and smoothed her hair back. Willow eyes widened when she saw the blood stain on the back of her hand. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for something... very important." Without waiting an answer, Anya left. 

"Did you see that?" Willow watched her go, not bother to hold up her mobile phone again. 

//Yeah.// 

"I should go and check." The redhead said, nodding at the fraternity house Anya just walked out from. 

//Are you sure?// 

"I..." Willow thought for a moment. "No. But what if she's in trouble?" 

//Honey, she's a vengeance demon. What do you think?// 

"But-" 

Tara sighed. 

//Just be careful.// 

And disappeared. 

Willow sighed, and walked towards the fraternity house. 

*** 

Buffy slowly walked around in the Sunnydale High basement. She stopped when she heard voices coming from not far ahead. She headed towards the voice, and saw Spike sitting on the floor, his back against the fence, mumbling. 

"...could never ask. Not after..." 

"Spike." Nothing. "SPIKE!" Spike looked up, surprise shown on his face. "This basement is killing you. This is the hellmouth. There is something bad down here, possibly everything bad." 

Spike laughed, as if Buffy was the one insane. 

Buffy sighed. "You have a soul? Fine. Show me." 

His laugher stopped. "Scream montresor all you like, pet." 

"Get up and get out of this basement." 

"I don't have anywhere else to go." He looked down, feeling ashamed. 

*** 

Willow slowly opened the door. "Hello? Is anybod-" She stopped when she saw the bloodstains on the floor. The house was deadly quiet. She walked inside, and found that not only the floor, but the walls, doors, tables... blood everywhere. She pushed open the door towards the entertaining room, and found at least ten bloody bodies there. Suddenly the memories of finding bodies back in the TV room in the high school flooded into her mind. 

[I'm not okay. I knew those guys. I go to that room every day. And when I walked in there, it... it wasn't our world anymore. They made it theirs. And they had fun.] 

She remembered every word - every single word that she said to Buffy. Back then, all she could do was watching Cordelia crying over her friend's body. She was too shock to do anything but cry. Later that night, Buffy died in the hands of the Master. This time though, Willow wasn't going to just stood there and watch. She wasn't going to cry on Buffy's shoulder. She wanted to help, she needed to help, to do something. Not for Buffy. Whatever that thing was, Willow knew Buffy should be able to take care of it. No. It was for Anya. If it was what Willow thought it was, then Anya was in trouble, big trouble. 

The witch walked closer to the bodies and started examined it. It wasn't a vampire attack. Something had ripped out the hearts from the victims. A demon. 

She walked back to the front room. Her attention was caught by the whipping sound coming out from the closet nearby. She slowly walked towards it and opened the door. A young woman, with her clothes full of bloodstains, sitting inside the closet. She was crying, her arms hugged tightly around her knees, rocking back and forth, numbing. 

"Hey..." Willow kneed down next to the girl, putting her hands on her knees, trying to get her attention. "It's okay. It's okay. Shh..." 

"I take it back... I take it back..." 

Willow frowned. "What do you take back?" She asked. 

"T-there's gonna be a party... everyone's there... everyone's bringing a d-date... I'll have a great time... but it was just me... and them... h-he broke up with me in front of them... it was all a game... it was all a game..." 

"It's okay now. You're okay now." Willow said softy. 

The woman kept crying. "They laughed and laughed and I cried and they laughed. And I yelled, 'just once, I wish you could all feel what it's like to have your hearts ripped out. Just once.' I wish-" She swallowed hard. "And it came." 

Willow stood slowly. "Okay. What came? What did this?" 

"Spider." 

"Where did it go?" 

"What do you mean?" The woman stopped rocking and stared at Willow. 

"The spider. Where is it now?" 

//Will! Look out!// 

Willow turned held up her hand quickly. A spider was now crawling on the protective shell Willow had conjured. It was huge, with green body and eight five-foot long legs. It kept biting on the shell, trying to break through the barrier. The woman saw the spider and started crying again. 

Willow turned. Her now black eyes stared at the woman. "For God's sake, shut your whimpering mouth!" 

The woman stared at her and swallowed hard. 

Willow turned back, applying more energy into the shell. She pushed, and the spider flew out from the window. Willow ran towards it, but it was gone. "Shit." 

//Watch your language honey.// 

Willow gave Tara and sheepish smile. She turned back to the woman who was still in the closet. Seeing how scare the poor woman was, and remembered how she treated her earlier, she felt guilty again. "I'm sorry." 

*** 

Buffy was bored. She sat in her office, feeling extremely bored. Not that she didn't feel bored when she was counseling the students, but at least she could pretend that she was not bored out of her mind, which was something she could do. 

"I'm suck and I'm bored." She sighed. Staring at the pencil in front of her, an idea hit her. She picked up the pencils, putting them on her forehead one by one, trying to balance them. Suddenly the phone rang. She jumped, and all the pencils fell on the floor. 

"Hello?" She picked up the phone and greeted cheerfully. "Oh Willow! Hey, is ever- a spider demon? What- hold on. Are you all right?" Paused. "Like how?" She picked up a pen nearby and wrote down the description about the demon. "Uh-huh. Okay. No, no. It's all good. I'll get Xander to go. But seriously, you- wow. Ripped out the heart? God. But hey, did you get that class you w-" Paused. "Um... okay. Sure. Bye." Buffy put down the phone, picked up the pencils on the floor, and tried to balance them on her forehead again. 

*** 

Willow stormed into the corridor of Anya's apartment building. 

//Honey, are you sure-// 

"I'm. I need to." Willow stopped, and turned to Tara. "I have to." 

//But she's a vengeance demon.// 

"I know, but-" 

//This is her job. And don't you think they deserve it?// 

"Tara, it is wrong!" 

Tara raised an eyebrow. 

"You don't think it is?" Willow asked in a small voice. 

//Honey, I just don't think-// 

"I shouldn't be the one who judge her. Becuase of what I've done." Willow sighed, running her hand through her hair. "I guess. But if it goes on... I can't let it happen again. Ya know?" 

//We should tell Buffy.// 

Paused. 

//She knows how to handle it.// 

"Handle?" Willow eyes widened. "B-but if she knows she'll-" 

//She's the slayer. This is her job. She's the judge. Not you, not me. She needs to know.// 

Willow sighed again, feeling defeated. "I know. But I still need to talk to Anya first. If she..." She shook her head, and started walking towards Anya's apartment. "I have to." 

*** 

"This is just wonderful, Anyanka. I can't tell you how many times today I've heard 'Anyanka is back to her old self again.'" Halfrek smiled at Anya who was sitting beside her in Anya's apartment. Her smile fell when she saw Anya's troubled expression. "Honey, what is it? What's wrong?" 

"It's just- There was just so much screaming, so much blood." Anya frowned. "I-I just forgot how much damage a Grimslaw demon could do." 

"Oh, tell me about it. They- are you okay? Did something happen?" 

"I guess I'm just a little rusty." Anya sighed. "I didn't think it would hit me like this." 

"Oh, sweetie. This is perfectly normal. It's a reflex. You'll get over it in no time, trust me." 

"Oh, Hallie! I can't tell you how good it is." Anya hugged Halfrek. "Thank goodness you're here." 

"Oh, sweetie. Of course." Halfrek smiled. 

"It's just lately, with everything that's been going on, I-I've had trouble-" 

The apartment door suddenly opened, revealed a fiery redhead. "Get out." Willow commanded Halferk. 

Halfrek stood up and stared back at Willow. "Lemon drop. If you think I'm gonna-" 

"Get out." 

Anya saw Willow's expression, knowing that she was about to flayed Halfrek alive. She turned to her demon friend. "It's okay." 

"Well, okay. If you need anything, you holler." Halfrek said, looked unimpressed, and teleported herself away. 

Willow face softened. "Anya, you have to stop this." 

Anya picked up the cups on the coffee table and started walking to the sink. "Do you know what they did to her? Do you?" She said angrily. 

"Anya, listen to me." Willow stepped closer. "You're in trouble. You know it. I'm here to help you." 

"You're here to-" Anya laughed. "That's great Will. Flayed anyone lately? How quickly they forget!" 

"I haven't forgotten one second of it." 

"What do you want?" 

"I want to help you." 

"They got what they deserved." 

"No-" 

"I am a vengeance demon!" Anya shouted at Willow. "Do you understand that?" 

"No." 

"Then try!" Anya turned her back to Willow, numbing. "They got what they deserved." 

"Please..." Willow pleaded. "Anya, if Buffy knows-" 

"Let her." Anya said coldly. She turned back to Willow, stared at her. "Let her know. She is the slayer. She needs to know." 

"But-" 

"Let her try. She never slay a vengeance demon before. Let her try." 

"Anya-" 

"I'm a vengeance demon Willow. This is my job. This is..." Anya stepped back, her face changed into the demon one. "Me." With the last word, she teleported herself away. 

//That went... well.// 

Willow sighed. 

//We should go.// 

*** 

Buffy and Xander were walking through the woods, trying to find the spider demon. 

"Thanks for side-kicking. I didn't want to trouble Willow. Figure she's got enough to due with." 

"Are you kidding?" Xander smiled brightly. "We're doing vent work at the site. Anything's better than breathing freon for eight hours." Xander looked around. "So, did she say what this thing is?" 

"Some sort of spider demony thingy. She had to go pretty quickly. Sign up for classes or something." 

"Ah, yes, there is little that can distract Willow when she's on the hunt for the mighty syllabi." Xander laughed. 

"I don't know." Buffy frowned. "I guess she was a little more nervous than she was letting-" 

The two of them stopped when they saw a body in front of her. Buffy kneed down, and found the body's heart was ripped out. Xander face turned pale. 

"How big did she say this thing was?" He asked nervously. 

"She didn't." Buffy stood up. "This is our guy." 

"Or a copycat spider demon. So what's this black stuff?" He walked towards the tree nearby, and touched the black strips hanging on it. "Aw, it's sticky!" He said as it stuck on his palms. He quickly moved back. 

"Willow said it was a spider demon. Maybe it's its webbing." Buffy looked at the strips. 

"This isn't springy high-flying fun." 

Suddenly, strange noises came from their above their head. Buffy looked up at the tree. "Xander." 

"Is that it?" Xander looked up also. Both of them started to become nervous. 

"I can't tell. There is definitely something moving up there." 

"Maybe we can somehow lure it." 

Suddenly a black strip shot down from the tree towards Xander. Buffy shouted, pushing Xander away. "Xander!" 

The spider demon jumped onto Buffy and knocked her onto the ground. Buffy tried to get free, but couldn't. The spider opened its mouth, trying to bite her. Buffy used all the forces and kicked it off herself. The spider jumped back onto the tree and disappeared. 

"You okay?" Buffy picked up the battle-axe she dropped and looked up at the tree, trying to find the spider. 

"Buffy, where'd it go? I think we need more swords." Xander stood up, looking at the tree also. 

"Uh-huh." 

"I say we go home, pick up more swords, and some sort of spidery demon protection amulet. We come back, and-" 

Buffy suddenly threw her axe towards the treetop. With a strange scream, the spider fell onto the ground, dead with axe through its body. 

"Or we can just do that." 

*** 

"I'm more concerned with where that thing came from. If there are more running around, we need to know about it. We should hit the research, find out if-" 

Buffy and Xander stopped mid-track when they saw Willow sitting in the living room, waiting for them. 

"I know where it came from." Willow said quietly. 

*** 

Buffy sat on the couch next to a stunned Xander. Willow was sitting on the chair opposite them, a sad look on her face. 

"How many?" Buffy asked quietly. 

"Ten, twelve." 

"When were you planning on telling us?" Xander came out from his shock, stared at Willow, asked angrily. 

//Xander...// 

Tara sat beside Buffy, frowned, shaking her head. 

"I'm telling you now." Willow stared back at Xander. 

"Great. Thank you. Willow, it's Anya. How could you let us... How could you not tell us... how could you not tell me?" 

//What can he do anyway?// 

"Xander. It's okay. She didn't tell us for a reason." Buffy paused. "She didn't tell us because she knows what I have to do." Buffy took a deep breath. "I have to kill Anya." 

"What?" Xander eyes widened. 

"She's not the Anya that you knew, Xander. She's a demon." Buffy said calmly. 

"That doesn't mean you have to kill her." 

"Don't act like this is easy for me. You know it's not." 

"There are other options." 

"I've considered them." 

"When? Just now? Took you all of ten seconds to decide to kill one of your best friends?" Xander jumped up. 

"The thought that it might come to this has occurred to me before. It's occurred to you too." Buffy looked at Xander. 

"But we can change what she did. Fix it. These are mystical deaths, right? There has to be something." Xander looked at Willow, hoping she could come up some answers. 

//What? Torned people out from heaven again?// 

"Sorry." Willow shook her head. 

"It's okay." Buffy turned to Xander. "Xander, I know this is hard for you to hear, but it's what I have to do." 

"Hard for me to hear? Buffy, you wanna kill Anya!" 

"I don't want to." Buffy protested. 

"Then don't! This isn't new ground for us. When our friends go all crazy and start killing people, we help them." 

"Hey! Sitting right here." Willow looked at Xander, ignored. 

"I'm sorry. But it's true." 

//Doesn't look like he's sorry.// 

Tara shrugged. 

"It's different." Buffy said quietly. 

"Because you don't care about her the same way I do. Buffy, I still love her." 

//Love her so much that leave her at the altar...// 

Willow frowned at Tara. 

"I know. And that's why you can't see this for what it really is. Willow was different. She's a human. Anya's a demon." 

"And you're the slayer. Ha. I see now how it's all very simple." 

"It is never simple." 

"No, of course not. You know, if there's a mass-murdering vampire that you're, oh say, boning, then it's all gray area." 

"Spike was harmless. He was helping." Buffy shouted angrily. 

"He had no choice." 

"And Anya did! She chose to become a demon. Twice." 

"You have no idea what she's going through." 

//What you put her through.// 

"I don't care what she's going through!" Buffy stood up, staring at Xander. 

"No, of course not. You think we haven't seen all this before? The part where you just cut us all out. Just step away from everything human and act like you're the law. If you knew what I felt-" 

"I killed Angel! Do you even remember that? I would have given up everything I had to be with- I loved him more than I will ever love anything in this life. And I put a sword through his heart because I had to." Buffy shouted. "Do you remember cheering me on? Both of you. Do you remember giving me Willow's message? Kick his ass?" 

//Do you think they're going to start a chick fight? My money's on Buffy.// 

"Okay. Stop." She stood up, said loudly and firmly. Buffy turned and looked at Willow. Xander tried to say something, but Willow cut him out. "No Xander. Ta- You're right. She's the slayer. This is *her* job to judge. She acts like the law, because she *is* the law. Not you, not me, only her." Willow paused. "Someone has to draw the line. And slayer is the only one who can. There's no guidebook or council. There's only Buffy. And if I'm a demon-" 

"Will..." 

"No Buffy. I have to." Willow took a deep breath. "She would kill me. We both know that. Whether you like it or not, it's the truth. But she didn't, not only because I'm human, but also because I was stopped. So are Angel and Spike. If Any-" Willow suddenly frowned. She turned to Buffy. "Who said 'kick his ass'? I told Xander to tell you I was trying the spell again." 

//Oah-oh.// 

"What?" Buffy looked confused. "Xander said..." The two of them finally caught up what that meant. They both stared at Xander. 

"I... it is different-" Xander said weakly. 

//It is always different... for him.// 

Tara shook her head again. 

"You..." Buffy fist tightened. "I can't believe you..." 

"There has to be another way." Xander looked down, his voice was quiet but firm. 

Buffy took a deep breath, knowing that Anya was the most important issue right now. "Then find it." 

Xander took his coat and left, slamming the door in process. Buffy went to the weapon chest and grabbed a sword. She turned and looked at Willow. 

"I..." Willow looked at Buffy for a moment. "Sorry." She looked away. 

Buffy sighed. "Just... try and find a way, will ya?" 

Willow nodded, watching as Buffy left the house. She sat on the couch, staring at space. Suddenly, she jumped up and ran upstairs to her room. She went through her draws frantically, and smiled when she found what she was looking for. 

//Are you sure you still want to help Xander?// 

"I'm not helping Xander." Willow looked at Tara. "I just want to help Anya." 

*** 

Willow carefully poured sand on the bathroom floor in a circle, chanting in latin, holding an amulet that she found earlier in her drawer. 

A sudden bright light flashed in the bathroom, and a demon appeared in front of Willow, it's back facing her. Its voice was low and demonic. 

"Behold, D'Hoffryn. Lord of Arashmahar. He that turns the air to blood and rains-" D'Hoffryn turned to Willow, and smiled, talking normally again. "Miss Rosenberg. How lovely to see you again. Have you done something with your hair?" 

"Hello, D'Hoffryn." Willow said respectfully. 

"I figured I'd be hearing from you soon. The flaying of Warren Meers? Truly inspired. That was water cooler vengeance. Lloyd has a sketch of it on his wall." 

"That's not me anymore." 

"Is that right?" D'Hoffryn smirked. "So, I didn't feel your presence earlier today? I didn't feel a bit of the *old* you?" 

Willow shook her head a bit, clearing her thoughts. "We need to talk about Anya." She said firmly. 

D'Hoffryn growled. "Very well. Let's talk about Anyanka." 

*** 

Anya stood in the middle of the fraternity house, staring at the bloodstains, her face showed no emotion. 

"I thought I might find you here. Have you forced yourself to look at the bodies yet?" 

Anya didn't turn around, didn't need to. She knew the voice too well. "What do you want Xander?" 

"I want to help you." 

Anya laughed sarcastically. "Everyone is so considerate today. I should've slaughtered people weeks ago." 

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I did to you. Everything I put you through." 

Anya turned, and looked at Xander angrily. "Thank you. All better. Thank goodness you got here in time." 

"You don't understand." Xander stepped closer to Anya. "This isn't an intervention. Buffy's coming to kill you." 

"She's coming to try." 

"Did everybody have their crazy flakes today? You guys are friends. How could you talk like this?" 

"I have a job to do. So does Buffy. Xander, you've always seen what you wanted to. But she knew sooner or later it would come to this." Anya said, but she wasn't looking at Xander. Instead, she stared at the space behind Xander. Xander turned, knowing who was there. 

"Buffy, get out of here." 

"Get out of my way, Xander." Buffy said firmly, her eyes on Anya. 

"No." Xander turned back to Anya. But instead of seeing Anya's human face, he saw her demon face. 

"Get out of her way, Xander." Anya pushed Xander away. Buffy swung her sword at Anya. Anya ducked, and punched Buffy in her face. Buffy flew away by her force. 

"This is getting to be a pattern with you, Buffy. Are there any friends of your left you haven't tried to kill?" Anya said, standing there, waiting for Buffy to stand up. 

Buffy attacked again. She started swinging her sword, kicking and fisting towards Anya, but Anya avoided them all. Suddenly, Anya launched at Buffy, and threw her on the floor. 

Buffy stood again, her back on the wall. "Anya, I'm sorry." 

"You're apologizing to me?" Anya walked towards Buffy. "What fight are you watching? Or is this like one of your little pop-culture references I don't get, 'cos I'm a vengeance-" 

Before Anya could finish her sentence, Buffy caught Anya's arm and threw her towards the wall. Within a blink, Buffy's sword stabbed through her chest. Anya closed her eyes. Her face turned human again. 

"Anya!" Xander shouted. Buffy watched Anya calmly, and took a step back. 

After a second, Anya opened her eyes again. She looked down at the sword in her chest. 

"Forgotten how much swords through the chest hurt." She smiled, then pulled out the sword. Her breathing became heavy, blood slowly dripped from her mouth. "You know better than that, Buffy. It takes a lot more to kill a vengeance demon." 

"I'm just getting started." Buffy said calmly. 

Anya used the sword and started attack Buffy. Buffy kicked a stool towards her legs. Anya fell, dropping her sword. Quickly, Buffy picked up the sword, prepared to stab Anya again. But this time Xander rushed towards Buffy and knocked her down. 

Anya and the two jumped up again. 

"Stop trying to save me, Xander!" Anya shouted. 

Lightening bolts suddenly flashed through the room, knocking everyone to the floor. D'Hoffryn appeared from nowhere. He looked around. "Oh, please, don't mind me. Continue with whatever it was you were doing." He took a look at the bodies in the next room nearby. "Breathtaking. It's like somebody slaughtered an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog." 

Buffy picked up her sword and prepared to attack D'Hoffryn. D'Hoffryn turned to her. "Easy now. I'd be gone before you could swing." He walked towards Anya and helped her up. "Isn't that just like a slayer? Solving all her problems by sticking things with sharp objects." 

Buffy raised an eyebrow. 

"I talked to your friend, Miss Rosenberg. She's a firebrand. I have high hopes for her." He looked at Anya. 

"Stay away from Willow." Xander said angrily. 

"Oh, he's gallant, isn't he? I understand what you saw in him." He turned and looked at them. "Miss Rosenberg seems to think Anyanka would be better suited outside the vengeance fold. I think we already know what Lady Hacks-Away wants." He looked at an un-amused Buffy. "And the young man, he sees with the eyeballs of love. But I'm not sure if anyone's bothered to find out what Anyanka herself really wants." 

"Her name is Anya." Xander stepped closer. 

"Actually, funny historical side-bar, her original name was-" 

"I wanna take it back." 

D'Hoffryn stopped, turned and stared at Anya. "I'm sorry. What was that?" 

"I wanna take it back. I wanna undo what I did." Anya said firmly, her eyes filled with tears. 

"Hmm. You want to take it back. Must be twelve bodies in there. Such a thing... not easily done. But not impossible." D'Hoffryn said. "You're a big girl, Anyanka. You understand how this works. The proverbial scales must balance. In order to restore the lives of the victims, the fates require a sacrifice. The life and soul of a vengeance demon." 

"Do it." 

"Wait!" Xander shouted. 

"Stay out of this Xander." 

"Okay, all right. That seems smart. He just said you have to die! Perhaps there's some sort of alternate price." 

"Xander, you can't help me. I'm not even sure there's a me to help." Anya turned to D'Hoffryn. "I understand the price. Do it." 

"You're sure? This is your wish?" D'Hoffryn asked the last time. 

"This is my wish. Undo what I did." 

"Very well." D'Hoffryn gestured his hands, and Halfrek appeared in front of them. 

"Anya!" Halfrek smiled at her. 

Anya eyes widened. "Hallie!" 

Halfrek suddenly bursted into flames and seconds later, she disappeared. Anya started to cry. 

"Who did you think you were dealing with? Did you think it would be that easy to get away?" D'Hyoffryn turned to her, staring at her angrily. 

"Why?" 

"Why? Because you wished it!" 

"But she was yours." 

"Like you were mine? Haven't I taught you anything, Anya? Never go for the kill when you can go for the pain." Xander stepped closer, but Buffy stopped her. "Hold him back, slayer. Wouldn't want anyone to get hurt. I've got plenty of girls. There will always be vengeance demons. But now you, Anya, you're out. Congratulations. You're wish is granted." 

"You should've killed me." 

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." D'Hyoffryn smirked. "From beneath you, it devours. Be patient. All good things in time." 

In a flash, D'Hoffryn disappeared again. Anya looked at Xander and Buffy, then walked away quietly. 

"Go." Buffy told Xander. "I'll check on the boys." 

*** 

Willow lied on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "Do you think they'll work it out?" 

//I won't worry about it babe.// 

Paused. 

"I'm sorry." 

//Why?// 

"Today, when I used the protective shell..." 

//Oh, the little outburst?// 

Willow nodded sadly. 

//Well, she did whimper.// 

"It's only a protection shell and I-" 

//You trust me?// 

"With my life." 

//Everything will be fine.// 

Willow sighed. "I hope so." 

Willow turned and stared at Tara. "I love you." 

Tara smiled. 

*** 

"Anya, wait.". Xander shouted, running towards Anya. 

"Xander, please. Just go away." Anya said softly, but didn't turn. 

"Whatever's between us- it doesn't matter. You shouldn't be alone in this." 

"Yes, I should." Anya sighed. "My whole life, I've just clung to whatever came along." 

"Well, speaking as a clingee- I kinda didn't mind." 

Anya thought for a moment. "Thanks. For everything." Paused. "Xander... what if I'm really nobody?" 

"Don't be a dope." 

"I'm a dope?" 

"Sometimes." 

Anya turned and smiled. "That's a start." 

Xander smiled. He turned, and started walking away. Anya turned too, and walked towards the opposite direction. 

*** 


	4. Chapter 3

**BtVS S7 Version 2**

**Chapter 3**

by Cynthia Taz (cynthia_taz@yahoo.com) 

* Disclaimer and other information on Prologue. 

Notes: 

Still can't figure out a good name for the fic... um... :( 

** // // = Voice **

[ ] = Phone Conversation 

*** 

Willow rubbed her tired eyes, and closed the book in front of her. 

//Finish?// 

"Hey." Willow turned and smiled widely at Tara. "Miss you." 

//Me too.// Paused. //What are you reading?// 

"Just some study materials for next week." Willow answered. She sat up from the bed, and started messaging her neck. "Anyway, I think I gonna visit Anya later." 

//You know, if I don't know better, I would say you're in love with her.// 

Willow laughed. "In love with Anya? No thanks. I don't think I can ever meet her 'organism quota of the day'. " Her laugher died down slowly, her smile turned into a frown. "It just, she had been through alot lately. A-and except you, she's the only one who won't walk on the egg shell in front of me." 

//Buffy?// 

"She can't even mention your name. Not that I'm really talkative to them nowadays but I think she's still angry with me." Willow sighed. "I guess I deserve- 

//No you are not.// Tara cut her off. 

"Yes I do." 

//Why?// 

Willow looked down, bitting her bottom lip. 

//Becuase you hurt them?// 

Willow nodded. To much Willow's surprise, Tara started to laugh. "What?" Willow frowned harder. 

//Willow, seriously, how many times did they hurt you without apology afterwards? How many times did you help them and they didn't even bother to say a thank you afterwards? They own you. You didn't deserve being treat like that.// 

"It's different..." Willow protested weakly. 

//Well, if it's Dawnie who died, do you think Buffy would stop you from killing Warren?// 

Willow thought for a long moment before shaking her head. "I don't know. May be." 

//Trust me. She would break Warren into pieces at the spot.// 

"You think so?" 

//I know so.// 

"B-but she won't try to destroy the world." Willow pointed out. 

//Because she doesn't have that kind of power.// 

Willow said nothing. Tara smiled. 

//So, what about Xander?// 

"What about him?" 

//Still mad at him, huh?// 

"I..." Willow stared at Tara for a moment, then sighed. "It just... I keep thinking what you have said earlier, about what if he didn't lie... all these mess..." She leaned against the headboard, staring at the ceiling. "One small lie. Just one small lie, and everything changed... and it's all my fault-" 

Tara looked at Willow confused and at the same time amused. //Your fault... again?// 

"If I ran faster and didn't get hit and went all coma then-" 

//Honey, I told you about the scenario so you won't blame yourself on everything that had happened, not the other way around.// 

"So you want me to blame all of these on Xander and his over-manly hormones?" Willow asked, confused. "Tara, I should be the one who shared a huge part of the bla-" 

//No you're not.// 

Tara said firmly. 

//Don't forget if Buffy knew, then she won't need to send Angel to hell. They would still be together and everything would be so much better for all of us. What Xander did not only destroy Buffy and Angel, but also us.// 

"Still, I could choose not to use and abuse dark magic and-" 

//Then what? Let the hellmouth lose? If it's not you using dark magic to protect the hellmouth in the first place, it would have been opened way before you can resurrect Buffy.// Paused. //And I won't have the chance to come back.// 

"Tare, I killed. I hurt you. I hurt everyone. I almost destroy the world!" 

//And you regard having a chance being with me?// 

"I regard putting you in that position in the first place." 

//Willow, honey, don't be so hard on yourself. You don't deserve to suffer. You don't deserve to be blamed.// 

Tara sat next to Willow. 

//And everything will be fine. I promise.// 

Willow smiled sadly at Tara, then looked outside the window. "Do you think Buffy would forgive Xander if she knows what I know?" 

Tara shrugged. 

//May be, but Angel was her life. She said it herself.// 

"She forgives me though." 

//It's different.// Paused. //And even if Buffy forgive him, I don't think she would go that easy on him.// 

"Pay back's a bitch?" 

//Possible. It's never a good thing to piss off a slayer.// 

*** 

Buffy, Xander and Dawn were now at Xander's apartment. Spike was standing just outside the opened door, listening. 

"You gonna live in that small room over there." He pointed at the room nearby. "I know it looks like a closet, but it's a room now. You're not gonna touch my food. I take the first shower in the morning, and if I use up all the hot water, that's your tough noogies." He then turned to Buffy. "And I hate this plan." 

Spike didn't say anything, but just kept standing there. Xander looked annoyed. "Are you keeping up, or do you need some kind of English-to-Constant-Pain-In-My-Ass translation?" 

"Invitation." Buffy whispered to Xander. 

"Is there something more emphatic than hate? Can I revile the plan?" Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Fine." He turned to Spike. "I invite you in..." When Spike finally stepped inside the house, Xander added. "Nimrod." 

"Don't want your soddin' food anyway." Spike said. 

Xander ignored him, but turned towards Buffy. "I just don't understand. When his problems became your problems... more specifically mine?" 

"The school basement is making him crazy. We can't just leave him there." Buffy reasoned. 

Dawn looked at Buffy for a second, then frowned. "You guys aren't... You're not starting up again with the wh-" 

"NO!" Buffy shouted. "No. A thousand gallons of no." Xander and Dawn stared at Buffy with the same disbelieve expression. "It just... things are different now. He has a soul." 

"I'm sure that will be a real comfort when he soulfully attacks you again." Xander said sarcastically. 

"What does that mean exactly that Spike is all soul-having?" Dawn asked. 

"I don't know." Buffy confused. "But he's been through alot... okay, and nobody's attack-" 

Spike walked towards Buffy, touching her arm, trying to get her attention. Instead, he startled her. "Sorry." 

"No. It's me. I just-" 

"Look. I'll go-" 

"It'll work. It already is. You've been out of the basement for only half and hour and you've already stopped talking to invisible people." Spike raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so there was one episode in the car but..." She shook her head. "Just go to your closet." Buffy pointed at the room's door with a mothering tone. "Let's go Dawn. We still need to patrol." 

Spike watched and sighed as Buffy and Dawn left. 

*** 

Buffy and Dawn walked down the cemetery quietly. Dawn stared at her sister for a moment, opened her month to say something, but closed it before any words got out. 

"What?" Buffy turned and looked at Dawn. 

"Nothing." Buffy raised an eyebrow. "I... why do you help Spike?" 

"He has a soul-" 

"And what does that mean? We should feel pity on him becuase he has one?" 

"I help him not out of pity Dawn." Buffy sighed. 

"Then why?" 

Buffy stared ahead and thought for a moment. "It's a good question." 

"And the answer will just pop up in the middle of the night like a vamp?" 

Buffy sighed. "It just... I don't know what I'm feeling. I think I can't stand him, but sometimes..." 

"You love him?" 

"No. I... I feel for him." 

"Feel what, exactly?" 

"Dawn..." Buffy gave her a warning look. 

"I'm just trying to understand. I mean, none of it makes sense. First you say Spike disgusts you, but secretly you two are doing it like bunnies. And then Spike says he'd die for you, but he tries to rape you." 

"For the record, Spike knew how wrong it was. That's why he went away." 

"But to get a soul? Like that would make him a better man?" 

"I know I won't." The sisters turned, and saw a vampire standing behind them. The vampire vamped out. "Scream for me." And he started walking towards them. 

Dawn laughed, loudly. The vampire stopped mid-track. "What are you laughing at little girl?" He said angrily. 

"I'm not little!" Dawn stopped her laughter and said seriously. 

"He's right Dawn." Buffy said. "You are little." 

"I'm taller than you." Dawn smirked. 

"You..." The two of them started arguing. The vampire stood there, looking at them strangely. After some time, he finally had enough. He launched himself at them, but the two of them stepped back, causing him to land on the ground. 

"Hey! It's rude to interrupt other people's conversation, ya know? Even soulless Spike won't do that." 

The vampire hand shot up. "Spike?" 

"You know him?" Buffy asked. 

"I know him?" The vampire smiled. "He's the one who gave me all these power." 

"Sire?" Dawn whispered, her eyes widened. She turned, and found the same expression on Buffy's face. 

*** 

The door of the closest opened, and Spike walked out from the room. Xander heard the door, but he kept watching the television and drinking his beer. Spike looked at the back of Xander for a moment, before leaving the apartment quietly. 

*** 

Two figures appeared in the dark corridor of the Sunnydale High. They each carried a huge backpack and a torch. The taller figure was holding a map, while the shorter one waiting impatiently. 

"C'mon. Are you done yet?" The shorter one asked. 

"I..." the taller one stared at the map for a second, and sighed. "I can't make out the way how this thing works." 

"Why don't you say that earlier?" The shorter one scowled. He grabbed the map and started reading it. He looked up, and pointed at the left. "That way." He turned and started walking down the hallway. 

The taller one followed. "Jonathan... are you scared?" He asked quietly. 

"Of course I'm scared." Jonathan said, kept reading the map and looked around to see if they were on the right way. "Last time we were here, 33.3% of us were flayed alive." 

"Then why are we doing this?" He whined. 

"Because it's a right thing to do Andrew." Jonathan sighed. He stopped at the front of the door with a 'To the basement' sign on it. "Here we go." 

*** 

Willow knocked on the door. Once. Twice. "Anya?" She frowned and knocked again. Still, no sound. She turned the handle, and found the door knocked. "Where did she go?" 

//She's not here Will.// 

"She isn't in the Magic Box. She isn't in her apartment." Willow thought for a moment, then asked in a small voice. "She didn't say anything about leaving Sunnydale, did she?" 

//Well, you two haven't talk since that night.// 

"I just hope she's alright." Willow said sadly, walking towards the stairs. "She was the only one who isn't look at me funny nowadays." 

//I don't look at you funny.// 

"No." Willow smirked. "You just look like you want to eat me alive." 

//I want.// 

Tara smirked. 

*** 

Buffy grabbed the vampire's shirt, and shoved him against the wall. The vampire was kicking and shouting, trying to free himself from the slayer, but the slayer pointed a stake at his heart, causing the vampire to freeze. "You better think clearly. You said he sired you?" 

"What?" 

"You said Spike is your sire?" 

"If that word means making me into vampire, then yes..." The vampire stared at Buffy for a moment. "You know him?" He asked hopefully. 

"Oh yeah. She *know* him alright." 

Dawn's quick remark wasn't lost by Buffy, but she kept her attention on the vampire. "When?" 

"When what?" 

Buffy shook him violently. "When did he sire you?" 

"T-two days ago." With that, Buffy shoved the stake into his heart, ending his short undead live. 

*** 

Willow and Tara was sitting on the grass under a huge tree. Willow was having a sandwich while Tara watching her eating. 

"You know," Willow took another bite of her sandwich. "Buffy would definitely be pissed if she knew I was out having picnic in the middle of the night in cemetery without a slayer by my side." 

//Do you think she would care about that?// 

"Of course-" Willow looked at Tara for a moment, then sighed. "May be not so much but-" 

//Honey, I was thinking... may be you should move out?// 

"M-m-m-m-move out?" Willow dropped her sandwich and watched Tara with her eyes widened. 

//Honey, calm down. I'm just saying, if it's so difficult for you to-// 

"No, it's not difficult or anything. I mean, well, sometimes it's still awaken to be with Buffy or Dawnie or even Xander but we're getting better! Really! I-" 

//They're still afraid of you Will. They don't want magic Willow. They just want a plain old Willow.// 

Tara sighed and paused a bit before continue in a small voice. 

//Sometimes I even wonder if they want plain old Willow around.// 

"You think they don't love me anymore? But... but..." 

//Will, I may be died, but I still have eyes. Even Anya treated you better... well, when she's still a vengeance demon anyway.// 

"They... they're not that bad, really." Willow protested. 

//Well, just a suggestion.// 

Tara shrugged. 

"Do you really think I should...?" Willow asked in a small voice. 

//Do you?// 

Tara smiled. 

*** 

"Okay. Three hours ago you're telling me that he's harmless. Now you're telling me that he kill again?" 

"We just found that out ourselves." Buffy protested weakly, sitting in the living room in Xander's apartment. 

"And we are not even sure if the vamp is telling the truth." Dawn added. "I mean, if Spike is evil again, you should have already been dead." Xander eyes widened at Dawn's remark. "Not that I want you to die." Dawn added immediately. 

"We need to keep an eye on him." Buffy said seriously. "Do you know where he's going?" 

"How should I know?" Xander frowned. 

"What should we do?" Dawn asked. 

"I'm not sure." Buffy sighed, messaging her temper. "I guess research is in order." 

"I don't think there are any books about how a chipped vampire can kill again." 

"I can try to see if there's any increasing case of neck trauma death these couple of days." Dawn supplied. "We can check on the newspaper, or get Willow to check on the police report." 

"I think Willow is going out for dinner tonight. May be we can ask her later or tomorrow morning." 

"Then what are we going to do now?" Xander asked. 

"We wait." Buffy looked at the two of them. 

*** 

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Andrew walked beside Jonathan in the Sunnydale High basement. 

"Would you stop whining?" Jonathan said angrily, and stood in front of Andrew. "You've kept whining and whining since we decided to come back to Sunnydale. I told you we-" 

"There." Andrew suddenly pointed behind Jonathan. Jonathan turned, and saw a door between him. 

"There?" He asked, walking towards the door. "Are you sure?" 

Andrew swallowed hard, his eyes kept staring at the door. "Yeah." He chocked out the word. 

"Okay." Jonathan shrugged, and walked towards the door. He didn't see Warren was now standing beside Andrew, smirking. 

*** 

"I wish time would stop." Willow said quietly as she lied on the grass watching up at the night sky. 

//I wish time move faster though.// 

"Why?" Willow frowned and turned, looking at Tara, asking in a fearful voice. "You don't want to be with me?" 

//Of course not sweetie! It's because I *want* to be with you.// Tara gave Willow her trade mark half smile. //I want to touch you, to be with you forever. The faster we can do the spell, the faster we can be together again.// 

"Oh." Willow smiled. "I wish time to move faster then." She looked at her watch. "Well it's two twenty now so- two twenty?!" Willow jumped up immediately and started to panic. "Oh God! Two twenty! Buffy must be worried sick. We had to go back now!" She started picking up her things. 

//Honey, calm down. Has she call?// 

"Call?" Willow looked at Tara, confused. 

//Yeah, call.// Paused. //Your mobile phone?// 

"Oh right." Willow took out her mobile. "Oh." She sighed, and sat heavily on the grass again. "She didn't call." She whispered. 

//I told you.// 

"But... but... may be she's busy or-or oh God! What if she got hurt? What if some vampires attacked her and Dawnie? Oh God! Oh God! I got to... I got to..." 

//Check on them?// 

"Yes!" Willow started dialing when Tara voice stopped her. 

//What if they're at home sleeping? You gonna wake them. It's a school night, remember?// 

Willow frowned. "Oh." Paused. "May be I should go back then." 

//If you want.// 

Tara shrugged. 

*** 

"We almost got this thing uncovered." Jonathan said, digging up yet another dirt in the basement at the Sunnydale High. 

"Yeah." Andrew said. 

"I hope Buffy will know how to destroy it." Jonathan said half hearted. Suddenly he stopped, looking at Andrew. "That's it! 36-19-27! My locker combination!" He smiled, and continued digging. "God. It's been bugging me all night!" 

"Dude." Andrew said quietly. "We spent the last few years trying to forget about high school. Why are you trying so hard to remember it?" 

"I don't know. I guess I miss it. Don't you?" 

"Yeah, I really miss it." Andrew said sarcastically. 

"You know what? They don't wanna talk to you...all those people you just mentioned. Not one of them is sitting around going, 'I wonder what Jonathan's up to right now.' Not one of them cares about you." 

Jonathan shrugged. "Well, I still care about them. That's why I'm here." 

Andrew sighed, and looked down at the huge metal pentagram with a horned goat head on it which was now underneath them. 

*** 

Spike and a young woman were now walking towards an apartment building. They were talking happily. When they reached at the entrance, they stopped. Spike stood there, his hands in his pocket. The woman turned, smiled, and stepped closer to him. Spike smiled. 

"Good night." The woman said, and hugged Spike. 

Spike hugged back, and in a second, Spike vamped out, and sank his fangs into the woman's neck. The woman struggled trying to get free but couldn't. She turned weaker and weaker, until darkness finally consumed her. 

*** 

Willow slowly walked towards the second floor, and found Dawn's and Buffy's room was empty. "That's strange." She said to herself. "It's a school night. Buffy always made Dawn sleep before twelve in school night. Where are they?" She went towards the phone. "No message." She picked up the speaker, and dialed Xander's number. 

[Hello?] 

"Xan- Buffy?" 

[Willow?] 

"Is Dawn with you?" 

[Yeah. She's sleeping. So is Xander. Want me to wake them up?] 

"No. That's alright. I just worried where you guys been... you know, empty house and all." 

[Sorry. I guessed I forgot.] Paused. [Gosh, it's almost three.] 

"Yeah. It's pretty late." Willow paused. "So... school holiday tomorrow?" 

[Nuh. Xander will drive us back tomorrow morning. Um... Will? Can you check something out for me?] 

"Sure." 

[Can you see if there's more neck trauma victims these couple of weeks?] 

"I'll boot up my notebook right now." Willow walked towards the dining table and started up her notebook. 

[Will, you don't need-] 

"It's alright." Willow sat in front of her notebook. "New big bad?" 

[We're not sure yet. Spike may be involved.] 

"Spike?" Willow frowned. "How?" 

Buffy thought for a moment. She didn't want Willow to worry too much, especially since she just came back and going back to class. [Just rumors.] 

"Um... okay." Willow sighed, thinking that Buffy didn't trust her, or even worst, not wanting to have anything to do with her. "Give me a sec." Willow quicky connected to the net and hacked into the Sunnydale Police Department like she had in the past six years. "Wow." 

[What?] 

"There're not much neck trauma these days..." 

[Why am I sensing a but coming?] 

"There're 10... no. 11 missing these couple of weeks. All young girls. I can pull out the files for you." 

[Thanks. See you tomorrow then?] 

"Um..." Willow thought for a moment. "I may be out early tomorrow. I'll just print out the files and left it in the kitchen so you can go through it tomorrow morning, okay?" 

[Um... okay.] 

"Good night then." 

[Bye.] 

Willow put down the phone, and collected her notebook to the printer, and started printing out files. 

//I thought you don't have class tomorrow.// 

"I don't." Willow sighed. "I just figure may be I can go back earlier and see if I can find a dorm room." 

Tara smiled. 

*** 

"It's it." Jonathan shoved away the shove. "We need to go tell Buffy now." He turned, and picked up his bag, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned, and found the hand belonged to Andrew. "What?" 

Sudden pain shot through his belly. Jonathan looked down, and found Andrew holding a big knife that stabbed through his stomach. He looked up, opened his mouth, but no voice came. Andrew pulled out the knife, and stabbed it into his stomach again and again. Finally, Andrew pulled out the knife for one last time, and stepped aside. Jonathan fell, his body lying on the seal, blood flowing out from her small body. 

Andrew swallowed hard, watching as Jonathan's life slowly drifted away. 

*** 

"Where have you been?" A harsh voice directed towards Spike once he set foot into Xander's apartment. He looked at the blondie who's the voice belonged to, now sitting on the couch, staring at him. 

"Just get some drink. What?" 

Buffy stared at Spike, her eyes narrowed. "Nothing." She paused before continued. "Do you need me to bring you some blood?" 

"No thanks." Spike paused. "Big Bad?" 

"Not really." Buffy waved her hand. "Just get some sleep." 

Spike shrugged and entered his new room, with Buffy's eyes fixing on his back. 

*** 

Willow picked up her bag and opened the front door when the phone rang. She debated herself for a minute not to take the call, but gave up and closed the door again. She put down her bag and picked up the phone. "Summers' Resident." 

[Hello. May I speak to Willow please?] Willow's mother's voice came through from the other side. 

"Mum?" 

[Oh hi honey.] 

"Hey. You guys still in Paris?" 

[Yeah.] Willow could hear her mother smiled from the other side of the phone. [The university is great. Your father and I both love it very much.] 

"That's good." 

[Oh, how's Tina, by the way?] 

Willow paused for a moment. "*Tara*, mum. Her name is *Tara*." Paused. "And she is fine. *Very* fine." She said, grounding her teeth with un-spoken anger. 

[That's great.] Her mother dismissed the name immediately. [Anyway, your father and I have been discussed and we think we would stay here for a longer time, probably at least a year.] 

"Okay." 

[If you are going to continue living with Bunny-] 

"Buffy." 

[Okay. Buffy. Right.] Her mother yet again dismissed the name immediately. [So if you don't want the house your father and I are going to sell it.] 

"Selling the house?" 

[Yeah. I'll call the lawyer and the agent later. Or you want to move back to the house? We can change it under your name. You can decide what you want to do with it.] 

"Oh." Willow paused. "I guess. The value of the house isn't really high anyway." 

[Tell me about it. The value just keeps decreasing.] She sighed. [Anyway, if you want to visit us, just give us a call. Okay? I'll call the lawyer and tell him to contact you for the documents.] 

"Okay." 

[I better go now. Your father and I are going to dinner with other professor tonight.] 

"Bye." 

[Bye.] 

Willow put down the phone, her eyes focusing on it. "Her name is Tara." She whispered. "Tara." Again and again. 

*** 

Anya eyes narrowed at Xander who was busy opening all the blinds in the living room. "Forget it Harris." 

"C'mon Anya. You said you would do it on the phone." Xander turned and frowned a bit. 

"But that was be-" She paused for a moment, her eyes shifting towards the closed door nearby. "Before you told me Spike's killing again." She whispered. "And now you want me to be alone with him?" 

"You didn't mind being alone with him before." 

"What was that?" 

"Nothing." Xander shook his head. "Look, we don't actually know that he has killed anyone lately. Might all just be a mistake." 

"Yeah, but you don't think so." Anya pointed at Xander. "Have you searched his room for clues? Trophies from victims? Killers like to keep trophies sometimes. Scalpers, necklaces made from human teeth." 

"You know, it didn't occur to me to look, but thanks for the tip." He took his briefcase from the table and quickly moved towards the front door. "You'll be safe in here. Plenty of sunlight for you to hid in." 

"What? That's it? You're not at least gonna leave me a crossbow or a flame thrower? Something to protect myself?" 

"We don't want him to know we suspect anything." Xander said causally as he grabbed his hard hat from the cupboard nearby. "Besides, if he tries to leave, I don't want you to confront him. Call Buffy and just let her know that he's on the move." He stopped and turned his face fully at Anya. "You gonna be fine." He quickly turned and opened the door. 

"Better be, because if I get vamped, I'm gonna bite your ass." 

"Won't be the first time." He smirked before walking out and closed the door. 

"What was that?" 

*** 

Buffy frowned at the list of missing girls pictures in front of her. Her mind replaying again and again about the vamp she had staked last night. 

"Miss Summers... Miss Summers?" Buffy jumped as she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned, and found the Sunnydale High Principle looking at her with an amused expression on his face. "What are you reading?" 

"Um... nothing." Buffy quickly closed the file before he could peek. "Just some reports." She answered. "What's up?" 

"Oh." Principle Wood smiled. "So, getting used to the exciting high school experience already?" 

"Exciting with a capital E." Buffy smiled back. 

"Good." He nodded. "Just tell me if you need any help." He said. Buffy narrowed her eyes as she watched the principle walked away. 

*** 

Anya stood in front of Spike's room, her eyes staring it as if it had just took her money. She sighed for the last time, before turning the door handle and sneaked into the room. 

Looking around quietly, she held tight the stake in her hand, and reached for the nightstand drawer. Opened it one by one, she searched for anything that might suggest if Spike had killed anyone recently. She frowned for a minute, her eyes turning towards the clothes on the floor. 

Anya carefully took the leather pants and stuck her hand into the pocket. Suddenly, Spike's hand reached for her arm, and tightened it. Anya turned sharply at Spike, who still had her eyes closed. "Anya, do be specific and tell a fellow just exactly what you're doing here." He said, slowly opening his eyes. 

"Well, Spike..." Anya tailed off, her mind racing. "I'm here, obviously... for... um..." She finally decided to say the one thing that had stayed in her mind 24/7. "Sex." 

Spike blinked for a second, before shooting up from the bed, retreated from her arm. "Beg pardon?" 

Anya turned fully at Spike, kneeing next to his bed. "You and me. Here and now. Let's go. Let's get it on, you big bad boy." She said, trying to sound arouse but fail miserably. 

"Wait Anya. Just a minute. This is not exactly-" Spike paused, his eyes turned towards Anya's hand. "Is that a stake?" 

"Yes. Kinky." Anya threw the stake away without second thought, stood up, and settled herself on top of Spike. 

"Uh, well, yeah, but what do you-" 

"Shh." Anya smiled nervously, pressing her finger against his lips. "No questions. No talking. I can't help it. I can't stop thinking about us and our brief but unforgettable time together. I mean, why else would I be here? It's not like I'm snooping around looking for proof that you're some sort of wicked serial killer." Spike raised an eyebrow as Anya laughed nervously again. "I don't know why I said that. Forget I said that. It's craziness talking. It's just nerves... nerves and horniness." She rolled her eyes. "Oh just shut up William, and take me. Take me now." She said, lowering herself towards Spike and started kissing his neck. But when Spike didn't response, Anya sat up again. "What?" 

"It's not that I'm not tempted. Obviously, if things were different, you're a ripe catch." 

Anya waved a little. "I got it. No problem, I understand." She stood, excusing herself from Spike, but stopped and sat down on him again. "You think I'm fat." 

"Huh?" 

"It's either that or the haircut." 

"Ridiculous. The do's quite fetching." 

"Oh right." Anya rolled her eyes. "Now you like the haircut." 

"Love it." Spike raised both his hands. 

"Sure, as a friend." Anya frowned. 

"Anya..." 

"You know, you were alot more fun when you didn't have a soul." 

"Oh c'mon. I've just explained to you-" 

"All I'm saying is soulless Spike would have had me upside down and half way to the happy land by now." 

Spike sighed. He looked down at the thin sheet covering his naked body, before looking up again. "I need my pants." 

Anya grabbed his pants from the floor and threw it at him, but still keeping her seat on Spike. 

*** 

"Atcha." 

//Bless you.// 

Willow smiled back at Tara for a second before turning back towards the task in her hands. "How can a house get *that* dusty? It's like there's a dust demon living here for ages... well, if there's a dust demon." She shrugged, frowning at the now black cloth in her hand. "Eww." 

//It's not that bad. At least your parents had put covers on most of the furniture.// 

"That's true. I think it gonna take me couple days before I can finish all the clean up though." Willow stood up, looking around at the Rosenberg's house, and frowned. 

Her frown quickly turned into a grin when she saw the half smile on Tara's face. 

*** 

Anya, sitting on the couch in Xander's apartment, fluffy through the magazine in her hand, a small pout on her face. 

"Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, luv." Spike said, walking out from his room, his eyes staring at the ex-demon's back. 

"Who's hurt? I'm fine." 

"Right." Spike sighed, and looked at the almost night sky outside the window. "Look, uh, I got things to do." 

"Don't stick around on my account." Anya waved a little, her eyes never left the magazine. 

Spike looked at Anya for a second and left. Anya put down the magazine as Spike closed the door, and reached for the phone. She dialed the familiar number. "It's me." Paused. "He's leaving." 

*** 

Walking down the busy street, Spike moved quietly between the crowds, his eyes focused nothing but the ground. Suddenly, he stopped, his eyes slowly moved towards the musician who was playing a harmonica nearby. He moved again, his eyes no longer focused on the ground but people around. His lips moved slightly, humming along with the song from the harmonica. 

Spike reached the entrance of a club, his eyes landed on a young woman standing in the line. He moved forward, whispering something in her ears. The woman turned, smiled, and walked off with him hand in hand. 

Buffy appeared from not far behind, her eyes narrowed as she watched the two walking towards the other side. She started following, but stopped as her mobile rang suddenly. Buffy took out the mobile from her pocket, when a man dumped into her and knocked her mobile phone away. She cursed, bending down and pick up the phone. When she looked up again, Spike and the woman had already gone, disappeared in the crowded street. 

Buffy cursed again, before finally answered the phone. 

*** 

Willow picked up the phone, and dialed the number she had remembered by heart. She waited for a minute, before someone finally answered the phone. 

[Hello?] 

"Buffy?" 

[Oh hey Willow.] 

"I just wanna-" 

[Will I really need to go now. We'll talk later, okay? Bye.] 

"O-" Willow paused as she heard the dead tone from the other side. "-Kay." She put down the phone, before slowly looking around at the yet again empty Summers' house. 

*** 

"So, um, what kind of name is Spike?" The woman asked as Spike closed up the distance between them in the dark alley. "So, are you gonna make me guess?" She giggled. "Alright." Spike stopped in front of her, their faces only centimeters apart. "I guess you're little bad, huh?" She purred, before kissing him. 

When Spike didn't reply, the woman looked up again, her smile never left her face. "Am I right? Are you a bad boy? 'Cos I don't mind. You know," Her face slowly moved towards Spike's neck. "I was getting pretty bored waiting over there in that line. I hate waiting." She started nuzzled his neck. "Know what I mean?" 

Suddenly, Spike eyes widened at the empty space over the woman's shoulder. The woman saw the change in his expression, and turned, followed his eye sight. "Is there-" Before she knew, Spike vamped out, and bit on her neck, hard. 

*** 

Willow put down the last box of clothes on the front porch, nodding politely at the taxi driver who was helping her to move the boxes on the car. 

Closing the front door, Willow stood there, her sad eyes looking at the house that she used to call home for a moment, before turning and stepped into the cab. 

*** 


	5. Chapter 4

**Loosen End (previous: BtVS S7 Version 2)**

**Chapter 4**

by Cynthia Taz

Disclaimer and other information on Prologue.

Notes:

- Thank you for all your wonderful reviews. As for Spike, well, I've something in store for him so he will be with the gang (at least in the mean time). Sorry if it upset you.

- Aug 21: Just found out the formating screw themselves when upload the chapter (for some unknown reason... it works fine when i upload Blood Ties... damn it: angry mode:) so i've to upload it again and then fix it directly in the editor in ... GRRR!

** / Voice **

* * *

- - -

** - LONDON, ENGLAND : PRESENT -**

- - -

A man stepped inside his apartment and closed the door, a briefcase in hand. He looked up, and noticed a broken vase on the floor. "Nora?" He called, bad feeling stirring inside his stomach. He moved towards the living room, and broke into a run when he saw a young girl lying in a pool of blood. He dropped beside her, stunned, when some man wearing a cloak suddenly appeared from behind and held up a silver dragger. The man quickly turned, using his briefcase to block the attack, and round kicked the attacker onto the ground.

The man dashed towards the wall nearby, and grabbed the displayed sword, when another robed man appeared and stabbed him from behind. The man dropped onto the ground, lying next to the girl.

Behind him, the robed man stood there, blood dripping down from his dragger.

- - -

** - SUNNYDALE, UNITED STATES : PRESENT -**

- - -

Spike's eyes shot open when he heard someone knocked down the door of his new bedroom and moved towards him. Before he could react, he found himself being picked up from the bed and thrown towards the wall, his butt landing heavily on the floor. He blinked when he found it was the slayer who had thrown him to the wall. A very, very angry slayer. "Did you kill her?" She asked.

"What?"

"The girl. Last night."

"What girl?" Spike frowned, and turned on the light on the nightstand. "What are you talking about?"

"I caught the first act. I missed the curtain call. Did you kill her? Did you turn her? Is she one of your kind now?"

"W- Did you- are you following me?" Spike's eyes widened.

"Answer the question. Where. Is. She?" Buffy hissed.

Spike stood up and shrugged. "Who knows? I talked to her is all."

"Oh really?" Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Looked like more than talking to me."

"Well, I certainly didn't off her." Spike answered, picking up his shirt nearby and put it on. "Where are you getting this? You know I can't."

"Right. The chip." Buffy said, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"NO!" Spike shouted, frowning harder. "Not that chip, damn-it. You honestly think I'd go to the end of the underworld and back to get my soul and then..." He sighed. "Buffy, I can barely **live** with what I did. It haunts me. All of it. If you think that I would add to the body count now, you are crazy."

"So, what? You just troll the Promenade looking for drunk co-eds cause you're hungry for conversation?"

Spike stared at Buffy for a second, before suddenly laughed. "Oooh, is that what this is? Right."

"What?"

"You're jealous!"

"Don't play games. Not now."

"Yeah." Spike waved his hand a little. "You saw me chatting up another bird, giving the eye to somebody else. Touched a nerve, didn't it?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself."

Spike ignored Buffy's remark and continued. "It burns, huh? But you can't admit it, so you trump up some charge about me being back on the juice."

"This vampire I killed told me-"

"Told you what? That I go out? Yeah, I talk to people. Women. Talk to them 'cause I can't talk to you."

"Save it, Spike."

"As daft a notion as 'Soulful Spike the Killer' is, it is nothing compared to the idea that another girl could mean anything to me. This chip... they did to me. I couldn't help it. But the soul, I got on my own... for you." Buffy eyed him, but said nothing. "So, yeah. I go and pass the time... with someone. But that's all it is is time, 'cause... God, help me, Buffy... it's still all about you."

"This vampire... he told me you sired him." Buffy said, her voice somehow calmer. "He said you killed him, dumped him in a parking lot somewhere."

"And you believe him? Vampires aren't..."

"I did follow you last night, and you know what? You didn't look lonely or casual to me. You looked like you were on the prowl."

"You can't know that." Spike frowned again.

"So, then, tell me. Tell me what happened. You talked to her, then what?"

"We talked. That's all I remember."

"All you remember?"

"I don't know. I go out. I talk to people or I don't. It's boring. It all bleeds together."

"Well, if you seem to forget that much, then..."

"Not that. The taste of human blood. That, I'd remember."

"You were camped out on the hell mouth talking to invisible people. **Recently**. How can you be sure of..."

"No! You are wrong. You've got an accusation from a pile of dust and not a shred of proof!"

"So, I'll get some." Buffy said firmly and turned. "Do me a favor. Stake yourself before I have to kill you."

Spike merely staring at Buffy's back as she walked away.

- - -

/You got so many books./

Willow grinned. "That's me, geeky Willow." She picked up another book from the table nearby and sorted it into the book case. The redhead had spent the whole day yesterday un-packing all hers and Tara's clothes she had brought from the Summers' basement and put them into their new bedroom. Today she had started working on the books, sorting them into the case that once belonged to her father.

/Very... Giles-ish./

"I'm not stuffy though." The redhead giggled. Suddenly, she halted, and turned towards Tara. "I'm not, am I?"

/No./

Tara smiled.

/Even if you are, you're still my Willow./

"Good to know." Willow grinned. "So... the spell... we're doing it tonight, right?" She asked casually, even though her gestured indicated the opposite.

/You'll be fine./

Tara ensured. She looked around at the pile of books next to her, her eyes stopped at an opened notebook with different chemical and mathematic formulas on it.

/What's this/

"Um?" Willow turned and picked up the notebook. "Oh. Just some old calculations I did back when we fought the mayor. You know, the one I use to calculate how much explosive we needed to blow up the high school instead of blowing up the whole Sunnydale?"

/Huh./ Paused. /Interesting./

"Yeah. I figure we should keep it around in case we have to blow up the new school when Dawnie's graduate." Willow smiled as she closed the notebook and put it onto the case. "Oh! The car salesman called. Said the car's here. We can pick it up later in the afternoon. A-and they got a new blue one if we want-"

/The red one./

Tara said firmly.

"But-"

/Willow, we asked for the red one./

"I know, but-"

/No but./

Willow pouted, staring at Tara for a second and sighed. "Okay."

/So.../

The redhead couldn't help but smile when she saw a naught smirk crept up onto Tara's face - the smirk that usually only appeared when they were in the bedroom... alone.

/Playing with dynamite, huh/

- - -

"Willow? WILL-LOW!" Buffy shouted as she walked into the Summers' house and closed the door. Stretching her arms, she moved towards the kitchen and started up the coffee machine, having to spend most of the night looking for Spike. "Stupid vampire." She muttered, before turning towards the hallway, looking for her friend. "WILL?" She called again, but yet finding no response. She frowned, and moved towards the second floor.

Buffy halted at the top of the stairs, her eyes staring at the opened master bedroom door. "Willow?" She could feel her heartbeat quicken as she moved towards the opened door. Step by step, she finally reached the doorframe, and found an empty bedroom... with a lonely note on the un-used bed.

- - -

"Um... dried alfalfa..." Willow picked up the small bag on the table and put it into her backpack. "Check." She smiled, and added a tick on the list she had in her hand. Putting down the list, the redhead stared at the small backpack in front of her for a minute, before starting to pull out everything from the bag, intended to check it again.

/Will, honey, this is the fifth time you checked the ingredients./

"But what if I missed something?" Willow frowned. "W-what if I mess up?"

/You won't./

Tara smiled.

/I trust you./

Willow smiled painfully at her, before looking down at the floor. "You shouldn't have."

/But I do./

Paused.

/And nothing can change that./

The redhead witch looked up. "I love you." She mouthed, watching as a half smile slowly appeared on the blonde's face.

The two witches just stood there, staring at each other, enjoying the quiet moment between them. Suddenly, the phone rang, making both of them jumped. The redhead spun around, sending a dead glace at the phone, before turning back towards the table and started picking up the spell ingredients and checked them into the bag one by one - again.

"... Buffy." Willow paused as she heard the slayer's voice from the message machine. "I wanna call you on your cell but I just remembered that I never ask you for the number... anyways, call me when you're home, okay? We need to talk." Paused. "Bye." The redhead blinked and frowned.

/Still mad at Buffy/

Willow shook her head, but said nothing.

/It's okay to be mad at her, you know/

"I just don't wanna explain myself to her." Paused. "Not now."

/Just be careful. We don't need the slayer scooping around, messing things up when the time comes./

Willow frowned and looked up at Tara, biting her lips.

/Don't tell me this isn't what you're thinking./

Willow sighed, and walked towards the phone machine, pressing the erase button.

"ALL MESSAGES HAVE BEEN DELETED."

- - -

"What have you done now?"

"What?" Buffy frowned at her little sister. "I didn't do anything."

"You must have done something. Why else would Willow move out?"

"Oh, it can't be you-" Buffy halted as she saw pain flashed through Dawn's eyes. "Dawn-"

"I'm sure Buffster didn't mean it." Xander plugged in. "Will did say her folks' gave to give her the house."

"Wrote." Dawn pointed out. "She doesn't even have the guts to tell us herself."

"Dawn-" Buffy warned.

"Whatever." Dawn stood and picked up her bag, moving towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Xander asked, taking a bite from the donut he had bought earlier.

"School." Dawn replied. "I'm going to take a bus." She turned towards Buffy and smiled. "Don't want people seeing me with you."

"What's wrong with going to school with me?" Buffy frowned harder, watching her sister go. She then turned towards Xander. "I don't have mum's hair, do I?"

Xander quickly swallowed his breakfast and looked away.

- - -

Turning off the engine, Willow stepped out of her newly bought Jeep Wrangler with a bag on her shoulder. "I still think we should have gotten the blue one." She pouted, pulling up her feet from the pool of mud she had just stepped into. "Eww." Making a face, the redhead continued walking down the path. "May be we can drive the car back and-"

/Willow, we have been through this before./

Tara sighed.

/Besides, red matches your hair./

"But I like the blue one." Willow whined, her head dropped, kicking small stones on the ground along the way. "It matches your eyes."

/Honey, I don't think anyone would notice except you./

"Only dummy wouldn't notice-"

/We're here./

Willow looked up, and found herself staring at a huge clearing in the middle of the woods.

/Let the game begins./

- - -

Xander sat in front of the television, a beer in hand. He turned when he heard the door of Spike's room opened, revealing the blond vampire who didn't bother to send a glance at him and headed for the front door. Xander quickly stood and moved himself in front of Spike, blocking his way.

"No, no. You're not going out."

"I have to go." Spike frowned.

"Buffy was very clear about the **not** leaving of you."

Spike frowned harder. "I know what the slayer told you. It's not true. Now let me go and I'll find a way to prove it."

"Okay." Xander crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I'm gonna list the reasons that won't happen. One-" Before Xander could continue, Spike punched him in his face, effectively knocking him out.

"Ow!" Spike growled, his hand reached for his temple, before opening the door and left.

- - -

Dawn stepped inside the house and closed the front door. "Hello?" She called, walking into the kitchen and threw her bag at the corner. She opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water when she suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind.

/Things are coming Dawn./

Dawn spun around, and found herself staring at her mother, who was wearing a robe in white, strange bright lights glowing around her. "Mum?"

/Listen, things are on their way. I love you, and I love Buffy, but she won't be there for you./

"What? Why are you-"

/When it's bad, Buffy won't choose you. She'll be against you./

Joyce smiled sadly.

/I'm sorry./

Dawn took a step forward, but the figure quickly faded away and disappeared into nothing. The brunette ran towards where her mother was, tears started roaming down from her eyes. "No!" She looked around. "No! Don't go! Please! Don't go!" She screamed, before dropping onto the ground, sobbing.

- - -

"He hit you?"

Xander, with his eyes closed and an ice pack holding on his face, said softly. "Knocked me out. He's been gone for at least half an hour."

Buffy frowned. "Any idea where he's heading?"

- - -

Spike sighed, his eyes scanning around the crowd from the catwalk on the second floor of the Bronze. He had tried to find the woman he had talked yesterday, but it seemed that she had disappeared without a trace.

"One of them took your wallet?"

Spike turned around and found himself staring at a young attractive woman. "What's that?" He frowned.

"The way you're scanning the crowd?" The woman smirked. "You look like you're out for blood."

"I'm just looking for a certain bird I met here the other night."

"Um..." The woman took a step forward, her figure reached for Spike shoulder, slowly tracing along the lines on his jacket. "Was it me?"

"Sorry luv." Spike shrugged away from the woman. "Don't think so."

"Not even if I ask nicely?" The woman asked seductively, sitting on the arms of Spike's chair. Spike frowned harder. "Or are you the type that has to be convinced?"

"Friendly warning, pet. I'm the type best left alone."

"Huh. I get it. You'd rather I slip into something more comfortable." Spike's eyes widened when he saw the woman vamped out. "Should we pick off the crowd one-by-one, or block the exits and ravish the place?"

"Get away from me!" Spike jumped up, his back pressing against the wall.

"What's with the wallflower act?" The woman stepped closer. "You didn't seem so shy when you were biting me. I'm not asking if you wanna be soul mates, just figured you'd wanna have some fun." She turned towards a pair down at the dance floor. "I take him, you take her? Or the other way around? Whatever."

"No!" Spike grabbed the woman, forcefully turned her around to face him. "You're lying!"

The woman freed herself from Spike and shoved him away. "Is that all I was to you? A one-bite stand!"

Spike vamped out, and charged at the woman. The two exchanged fists and kicks, and at last, Spike managed to stake her with a chair leg, her remaining dust scattered all over the floor. The blond vampire panted, and ran out of the Bronze.

- - -

After almost an hour of crying and sobbing, Dawn finally stood. She dried her tears, and moved towards the phone and picked it up. Her figure reached for the keys, pressing, and then stopped. Slowly, she put down the phone, her hand retreated. Looking around at the lonely house, the brunette picked up her bag, and went upstairs.

- - -

Buffy slowly walked up towards the bouncer at the entrance of the Bronze, her eyes glancing at the long line waiting outside.

"Hey sweetheart." Buffy looked up and found the bouncer smiling at her. "If you wanna go in, go ahead."

"Oh, uh, actually, I need some help." Buffy said. "I'm looking for this guy. Bleach-blonde hair, leather jacket, British accent? Kind of sallow but in a hot way?"

"Oh yeah." Bouncer nodded. "I know that guy. Billy Idol wannabe?"

"Actually, Billy Idol stole his look from- never mind." She shook her head. "Has he been here?"

"Is this guy your boyfriend or something?"

"No. I just-" Buffy took a deep breath. "I need to find him, as soon as possible."

"Yeah. He comes in here a lot lately. Every night leaves with a different girl. Chicks like Billy Idol."

Buffy frowned. "How many girls?"

"Look, this not-your-boyfriend guy? If I were you, I'd lose him. He's a real player."

- - -

Spike picked up the phone, and quickly dialed the number he had memorized by heart. "Hello? It's me." He said quietly. "I'm seeing... I think I'm remembering. I think I've done some very bad things." Paused. "I need... I need to see you. There's a house. 634 Hoffman Terrace." He put down the phone and stepped out of the phone box, his eyes focusing on the house in front of him.

/You shouldn't have done that./

Spike spun around, and found himself staring at another him. He stumbled back, looking at his double, scared and confused. "You... me..."

/Not nearly. You're going against the plan, but we can make it work./

- - -

"LIGO!"

Red energy shot out from Willow's body and hit the five candles that were surrounding the redhead. The flame of the candles brightened as a snake of fire appeared from no where and started running along on the circle the witch had drawn on the ground earlier, leaving a tail of fire behind.

Suddenly feeling drained, the redhead fell forward, merely missing the snake fire as it suddenly turned into the circle and shot right pass her. The last thing the witch saw was fire surrounding her shot up towards the night sky, creating a wall of flame around her numb body.

What she couldn't see was that she was now lying in the middle of huge burning pentagram.

- - -

Buffy slowly followed Spike's lead into the basement of house. "Down here." The vampire said, walking down the stairs. The slayer hesitated, standing at the top, watching instead of following. Spike turned around. "You won't come down? I understand. It's a risky proposition."

Buffy stared at Spike for a couple of seconds, before finally took a step, and another, and another, until she was standing in front of him. "All right. What do you want to show me?"

"I've been remembering. The girl. I walked her home. The one you saw. And the one before that. And I think I killed her." Buffy's eyes started to get wider. "And I think I... I think I killed the lady who lived here. And there might be others."

"Oh my God."

Spike slowly walked towards the center of the room. "Here." He stopped, staring at the dirt beneath him. "I think I buried them here."

"Why?" Buffy asked, and stood beside Spike.

"Well, I don't know, do I? I don't even know how. Shouldn't be-" Spike halted, and turned around, staring at the empty place near the stairs.

"What? What is it?" Buffy frowned as she got no response from the blonde vampire. "Spike!"

Suddenly, Spike turned around and vamped out. Buffy quickly pulled out a stake, but Spike wrenched it out of her hand and threw it away. Buffy fisted his jaw, sending him flying across the room. "What are you doing!" She shouted.

Spike growled, picking up a piece of broken glass on the floor and swung at her, cutting her upper arm. Buffy held her injured arm, and kicked Spike in the stomach. Spike fell, and Buffy jumped onto him, grabbing his collar. "Spike, listen to me! You don't want to do this!"

The two spun around when they heard crawling and growling. Four vampires crawled out from the earth of the basement floor and charged themselves towards Buffy. "Oh God!" Buffy threw Spike towards the corner, before running towards the vampires and started fighting, but the slayer was quickly overpowered by them. The vampires held her, one on each limb, effectively immobilized her.

Buffy watched as Spike slowly stood and walked towards her. "Spike! No!"

Spike, still having his demon face on, stood right in front of her. He smelled the slayer on her neck, but instead of reaching for her pulse, he bend down, licking the opened wound on her arm. Suddenly, images flashing through Spike's eyes, all the images of him killing and burying people came back to him. He slowly looked up, his face molted back into the human one. "I remember." He whispered.

Everyone watched as Spike dropped onto the ground stumbled back towards the far end of the corner, curving himself into a ball. The slayer took the chance and freed herself from the other vampires, before picking up a shove nearby, break it into two and staked the vampires with its wooden handle. The slayer then slowly moved towards Spike, and stood in front of him. Spike looked up, tears roaming down his cheek, and held open his shirt. "Do it fast, okay?" Spike pleaded. "He said you'd do it."

"Who said?"

"Me. It was me. I saw it. I was here the whole time, talking and singing." He started sobbing. "There was a song."

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know!" Spike shouted. "Please... I don't remember... don't make me remember..." His eyes slowly moved towards his other self behind Buffy. "Make it so I forget again! I did what you wanted!"

Buffy frowned, and started looking around. "There's something here." She said, throwing the wooden handle onto the floor.

"Oh God no! Please! I need that! I can't cry the soul out of me! It won't come! I killed, and I can feel 'em... I can feel every one of them..."

"There's something playing with us. All of us."

"What is it? Why is it doing this to me?" Spike asked.

Buffy turned back towards Spike, looking at him. "I don't know." She said softly.

"Will you... help me? Can you help me?"

The slayer stared at him for a moment. "I'll help you."

- - -

Andrew, wearing a long black leather trench coat and black boots, matching down towards the dark Sunnydale street with a tough look on his face. Beside him, Warren smiled, clapping his hands beside him.

/All right. Looking good. How do you feel/

"Good."

/Excellent. We've got work to do./

Andrew stopped, the tough look on his face disappeared. "Do I have to do work right now? Can't I just walk around for a while in my coat?"

Warren stood in front of Andrew.

/Don't go soft on me now. We're right in the trench, and the exhaust port's in sight./

"I thought that was it. I did what you told me. It's not my fault it didn't work. Why do I have to do all the wet works-"

"Hey!" Warren cut him off. "You know the rules. I can't take corporeal form. Here. Feel." He opened his shirt. "C'mon."

Andrew hesitated for a moment, before holding up his hand and pressed right pass through Warren's body. "Cool." He smiled.

/Pretty bitchin', right? I'm like Obi Wan/

"Or Patrick Swayze."

/Believe me, I would do this stuff if I could, but I can't. I need you. You're my iron fist./

Andrew sighed. "I just don't think I can kill anybody else."

Within a blink, Warren's body morphed into Jonathan. The shorter boy smiled.

/Oh, will you stop worrying about that?'

"I didn't want to kill you." Andrew said to Jonathan. "Warren made me."

/Hey, I'm glad he did! This is the best thing that's ever happened to me./

Jonathan smiled.

Andrew crossed his arms tightly as if he was cold. "It didn't hurt too much? I-I'm not very good at stabbing."

/You know, it wasn't that bad. It was like.../

Jonathan thought for a moment.

/...a sharp pain, then a burning, then a general queasiness. It's kinda like when I used to get ulcers in high school, only at the end I became one with light and hope./

"I can't do it." Andrew sighed in defeat. "I can't do it anymore."

/Hey, it isn't your fault, okay? It's my fault the ritual didn't work. I screwed up. I-I'm little! I-I don't have as much blood as other people./

Jonathan frowned.

/And I probably should've told someone I was anemic./

Paused.

/Don't worry. We're gonna fix it. You gotta trust us. We know what we're doing./

"I-I **can't** kill anybody else."

/Okay, calm down./

Jonathan smiled.

/We can work around that./

- - -

Spike sat on the couch at the Summers' house, a blanket held security around him. Behind him, Buffy was sitting around with Dawn, Xander and Anya.

"And you believe him?" Anya asked, looking at Buffy.

"You didn't see him down there. He really didn't know what he'd done. It wasn't in his control."

"Oh, an out of control serial killer." Xander rolled his eyes. "You're right, that's a great houseguest."

"Wait!" Dawn blinked. "Is he... is he staying here?"

"I don't know, but I'm not letting him out of my sight, that's for sure." Buffy sighed, and lower her voice. "I think there was something there, talking to him, making him do things." She paused. "Something's screwing with Spike big time." Dawn raised an eyebrow at Buffy's choice of word.

"So, you want him around because...?" Xander asked.

"Look, there's something evil working us, and if we ever gonna have a chance to fight it, we need to learn everything we can about it. This thing has been closer to Spike than any of us."

"And if you want to understand it..." Anya promoted.

"I'm gonna have to get close to Spike."

"Nah, it's too dangerous." Xander shook his head.

"I don't have a choice. Whatever this thing is, from beneath us, it's bad, and it's only getting worse."

Dawn frowned, her eyes narrowed at her sister.

- - -

Buffy kneed in front of Spike who was sitting in a chair inside Buffy's room, tying his wrist to the chair. "We're gonna get to the bottom of this." Buffy sighed as she tightened the robe. "We just can't take any chances." She stood, and moved towards the other wrist and started tying it.

"Don't..." Buffy looked up, surprised. Spike frowned as he continued. "Make it tighter. The knots'll give. I get free, someone's gonna die."

Buffy frowned, hard.

- - -

Willow blinked when she felt sharp lights blinding her through her closed eyes. Slowly sitting up, the redhead found herself in the middle of the clearing, the fire that was burning around her had disappeared, leaving no trace of the spell she had done. "Tara?" She called, slowly standing up, looking around. "Tara?"

Receiving no response, Willow frowned, and picked up the small dragger she had used last night. The redhead frowned harder when she saw the dry blood on her waist. Grabbing a bottle of water from nearby, she pouted the water on it, surprised when she found no wound but only a thin scar. She shook her head, petting away the dirt on her back, before picking up her backpack and moved towards her car.

- - -

Buffy closed the door of her room quietly before looking up, and found her little sister standing there, her arms crossed over her chest. "I don't get it." She said. "So not only that you managed to get Willow moved out from the house, now you let crazy Spike stays here?"

"I've explained to you before." Buffy frowned. "If we want to understand it-"

"Yeah yeah yeah." Dawn waved her hand, dismissing her sister. "You gonna have to get close to Spike. Notice how you used 'I' instead of 'we'?"

"What are you talking about?" Buffy frowned harder. "That's-"

"Whatever." Dawn didn't even bother to wait for Buffy to finish the sentence. She picked up her bag, and moved down the stairs. "I'll tell Principle Wood you're not coming in today."

Buffy frowned, watching her sister left for school without another word.

- - -

Closing the front door, Willow turned, and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Tara standing right behind her. "Hey, you scared me." She smiled.

/Good scare or bad scare/

"Good one." Willow's smile slowly disappeared. "I miss you, when I can't find you earlier."

/You found me now./

Willow smiled sadly, her hand slowly reaching for Tara's cheek, but stopped before the two came into contact. "I want to touch you so badly that it hurts." She whispered. "It hurts so much..."

Tara smiled, and leaned in. To Willow surprise, she found herself touching something... something cold. The redhead blinked, her hand quickly retreated, before slowly reaching out again. "I... I..."

/Yeah. The spell works./

"You're so cold." Willow whispered again, her hand covering Tara's cheek, tears roaming down freely from her eyes.

/I know./

Paused.

/It's just a temperate spell though. Other people still-/

"I don't care about other people." Willow said. "I only care about you."

/I know./

- - -

Inside the Principal Wood's office, two students were sitting on the chairs in front of his desk, while the principal sat behind it, talking. "Now, guys, look, we can settle this one of two ways. You can re-paint the walls, or I can suspend you and report this little incident on your permanent record."

"Fine." One of the students said causally. "Do that."

"Okay. I was bluffing. I hadn't really thought that one through. Listen," Principal Wood leaned forward, staring at the two students. "This whole permanent record thing is such a myth anyway. Colleges never ask for anything past your SAT scores, and it's not like employers are gonna be calling up to check to see how many days you missed back in high school. So, listen, I could suspend you," He said, slowly standing up from his chair. "But that would mean calling your parents, alerting your teachers, filling out paperwork, and, quite possibly, having to talk to the school board - all of which sounds positively exhausting **to me**." The principal sat on the edge of his desk. "No, I think it would be much easier if I just called the police, let them deal with it." The two students looked at each other. "Oh, and in case you are wondering, this is the part where I'm **not** bluffing."

The two students immediately looked back at the principal. "W-we'll re-paint it."

"Good job." The principal turned when he heard a knock on his door. "Excuse me." He moved towards the door and opened it. "Miss Summers." He smiled when he saw Dawn standing there. "I'm with students."

"I just wanted to tell you that Buffy won't be coming in today." Dawn said. "She's really sick."

Principal Wood frowned. "Oh no."

"Yeah. Last night she was vomiting, and then this morning she was vomiting some more, and then, just when we thought she was done, she was vomiting again."

"Yeah. We got that stomach flu going around."

"Her exact words were 'I've got stuff coming out of both ends.'"

The principal blinked. "Thank you. That's..." He paused. "Very helpful."

"Sure. No problem." Dawn smiled brightly. She looked over the principal's shoulder. "Hey guys. How's going?"

The students in the office blinked. "Pretty good." One of them said hesitantly.

"Tell your sister not to worry about it." Principal Wood said. "We'll soldier on without her here. Just, um, tell her to concentrate on getting better."

"Yeah, she'll be fine." Dawn's smile slowly disappeared. "She just needs to get some stuff out of her system." She paused. "I hope."

- - -

"Shouldn't have put an extension in here." Willow rumbled as she rolled over to the side of the master bed and reached for the phone that had been ringing whole morning. "Hello? Oh hey Buffy." She sat up from the bed. "Oh. Um... sure. Yeah. Bye." She put down the phone and stood.

/You're going, aren't you/

"I have to." Willow said as she bended down and picked up the bra and undies she had dropped onto the floor earlier. "Something went down. She needs my help."

/Ever notice she only calls when she needs you to research/

Willow frowned, but didn't reply. She put on her sweater and zipped her pants. "I'll be back in a few, okay?"

Tara merely watched her leave, but said nothing.

- - -

** - LONDON, ENGLAND : PRESENT - **

- - -

The door of the apartment swung opened, and Giles rushed into the flat. He stopped when he saw the young girl's body on the floor. "Oh dear God!" He checked on the girl's pulse, but found none. He stood, and started looking around. "Robson, are you here? Robson!"

Giles moved towards the other room, and found the man who was attacked earlier sitting on the floor against the couch, his eyes closed. "You too?" Giles dropped beside him, and took off his glasses, defeated. Suddenly, the man's eyes shot opened. "Dear God! I thought you-"

"Gather them." Robson whispered.

"What?"

"Gather them. It has started."

"It's all right. I understand." Giles said, not noticing a robed man was sneaking up from behind him with a battle axe. "I'll-"

The last thing Robson saw was an axe swinging towards Giles' head.

- - -

* * *


	6. Chapter 5

**Loosen End**

**Chapter 5**

by Cynthia Taz and other information on Prologue.

Notes:

- Thank you for everyone's reviews. Can't do this without you:)   
- There will be more characters appeared in the later chapters, though you'll have to wait and see. Can't give out too many now, can I? Hehe...

**/ Voice **

* * *

...

"So the basement was filled with bodies?" Willow asked as she set up her laptop on the table in the dinning room. 

"Not 'filled with bodies', more like 'four vampires camping under the house'." Buffy answered as she stood at the doorway, leaning against the wall casually.

"Well, if you put it that way..." The redhead shrugged. "Have you called Giles? He may know something."

"Since yesterday. He didn't answer his calls. I contacted the Watcher Council and Travers said he'll look into it."

"Think they'll really do that?"

"Can't hurt trying." Paused. "How's the house?"

"Dusty." The redhead sat in front of her laptop and turned it on. "You won't believe how dusty a house could get after only half year of evacuate." She said, her figures tapping on the table lightly as she waited for the computer to boot. "So, demons that can do mind control on vampires?"

"Or spells. Spike said the chip didn't fire when he did all those stuff. We might have to look into that too." Willow nodded, and started typing away on the laptop. Buffy stared at her friend for a second, before opening her month, wanting to say something, but quickly decided against it. "I'll go check on Spike."

Willow nodded, still focusing on the computer screen. Only after Buffy's footsteps had disappeared down the corridor did the witch stopped and looked up at the empty doorway, frowning.

...

Buffy sat on the edge of the bed, watching quietly as Spike, who was still tied to a chair, shivering and gasping as he went through the human blood withdrawal. "Can I do something?" The slayer asked attentively.

Spike tightened his fists and bit his lips as he turned away and stared at the floor. "I think you should probably go."

Buffy looked at Spike for a moment, before standing up and moved towards the nightstand. Once she turned around, Spike changed into his vampire face, and jerked against his restraint. The slayer spun and jumped in surprise when she found herself facing a vamped out Spike.

...

"Ah..." Willow stopped all her movement and closed her eyes when she felt a familiar touch on her knee. "Tara..." She sighed.

/I miss you./

"I miss you too." The redhead finally opened her eyes, staring at her girlfriend who was kneeing next to her, staring back at her lovely. "You know, if you continue doing that, we will never get anything done." She placed her hand on top of Tara's, stilling the movement that was aiming upwards.

Tara smirked.

/Why don't we call it a night then/

Willow giggled. "It's still morning baby. C'mon." She held Tara's hand up and placed a kiss on the back of it. "Let me finish the search first?"

/No./

Willow was about to let go of Tara's hand when she heard the reply. Confused, she cocked her head at the blond. "No?"

/I want you now./

The redhead frowned as she watched her girlfriend disappeared under the table. Suddenly, cool hands appeared, drawing small circles on the warm skin of her upper tights. "Tara!" Willow protested.

Tara poked her head out.

/You continues your search, honey. It's just like playing road games. You'll love it./

Tara grinned and disappeared under the table once again.

Willow gasped when the cool hands returned, and her eyes closed when the hands changed into lips.

...

Andrew stood in front of the seal in the basement of Sunnydale High he and Jonathan had uncovered, a knife holding tight in his hand.

/She won't feel a thing. Just do it. Fast./

Warren took a step closer to Andrew from behind.

/Cut her deep. Cut her quick. It'll be over before she knows what hit her./

Andrew swallowed. "What if she squeals?" He asked.

/Uh.../

Warren thought for a moment.

/Better go for her throat first./

Andrew nodded and looked down, swallowing again when he saw a small pig standing there looking right back at him. "'Babe Two: Pig in the City' was really underrated."

/Don't think about Babe./

"Right." Andrew swallowed again.

/You're Conan./

Warren said in a dramatic voice.

/You're the destroyer. It's you against nature. You're the hunter, you're the primal; you live off the land. You're Andrew. Everyone knows you. You play by your own rules. It's kill or be killed/

"That will do, **PIG**!" Andrew screamed and lunged himself at the pig. The pig squealed when Andrew landed in front of it face first, and it ran away.

/No/

Warren shouted as he watched Andrew stumbling towards the pig.

/You gotta- you gotta corner it/

Andrew stood and lunged towards the pig again; he landed face first on the hard floor again; and the pig ran away... again.

/Stay between it and the hall/

Warren watched helplessly as Andrew stumbling after the pig. After couple of minutes, Andrew fell one last time, and the pig ran right pass Warren and disappeared into the dark corridor.

/This is the **worst** attempted pig slaughtering I've ever seen./

"Sorry." Andrew grumbled as he pushed himself up. "I'm not very good at the stabbing." He sighed and looked up at Warren. "Isn't there some other way we can get blood?"

...

"Willow?"

"Shit!" Willow jumped out of her chair when she heard Buffy's voice, her leg smashed towards the table in the process. "Ow!" She cried, jumping up and down on one leg while her hands holding the other. "Owie owie owie!"

"Are you alright?" The slayer frowned and moved towards the witch.

"I'm fine." Willow rumbled as she sent a glare at the table. "You startled me is all."

"So, did you find anything?" She bended down in front of the laptop and read the screen.

"Not yet." Willow took several deep breaths before answering. "I have the computer crawl the demon database, but it may be sometime before any result comes up."

"Oh. I guess we'll just set tight and enjoy the ride, huh?"

"Ride? No ride! Definitely no ride!" Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Um..." Willow blushed, and sent another glare towards under the table when she heard giggles. "Um... yeah..." She quickly changed the subject. "How's Spike?"

"Not good." Buffy answered sadly. "He's been feasting on humans for weeks. He's having some pretty bad withdrawals. I think we need to get some blood." She thought for a moment. "May be we can get Anya's." Willow frowned at Buffy, not amused. "Kidding." The slayer held up both her hands and surrender. "Anyway, we should probably try to wean him off humans. He'll have to make do with animal blood."

"I'll go get some."

/You already got some./

Willow blushed harder.

"You don't mind?" Buffy asked.

Willow shrugged. "There's nothing much I can do here anyway."

/So what we were doing was nothing to you/

"Huh? No baby-" Willow's hands shot up and covered her own mouth. Buffy frowned at her with confusion. "Going now." The redhead announced before running out of the Summers' house.

...

"Stop laughing!" Willow pouted as she pulled her car just outside the butcher shop. "This is entirely your fault! Now Buffy's gonna think I'm crazy!"

/I still says it's quirky./

Tara smiled.

/Besides, we should at least take a bit of advantage on the situation, now that I can touch you and they still can't see me. You don't even have to take off your clothes./

Willow flashed Tara a naughty grin. "Yeah. It's pretty cool. Though it still feels strange." Tara looked at the redhead, a bit confused. "I mean, having... you know," The redhead blushed a bit. "With the clothes on."

/You don't like it/

"Oh no! It's um... different."

/And very convenience./

Tara pointed out.

/Especially when we're not alone./

Willow blushed harder. She locked up the car door and walked into the butcher shop, no noticing as she slammed her shoulder into the man who just walked out of the shop, sending the big brown bag he was holding dropped onto the ground. "Oh Goddess! I'm so-" She looked down at the bags of blood that were now on the ground, and looked back up. "Andrew?" Her eyes widened.

Andrew's eyes got as wide as Willow's when he recognized the redhead - the one who had killed his friend, the same one who had tried to kill him not long ago... so, he ran.

...

"Wait a minute!" Willow shouted as she chased Andrew into the alley next to the butch shop.

Andrew stopped and spun around, holding up his hands. "D-don't kill me!"

"I'm not gonna kill you." Willow said, narrowed her eyes at the blond hair man.

"Don't torture me and send me to an eternal pain dimension!"

"Not gonna."

"Warren killed Tara. I didn't do it." Andrew continued. "And he was aiming for Buffy anyway." Willow's eyes darkened. She held up her hand, and Andrew immediately got picked up by an invisible force and slammed into the wall behind him. "Ooh." He moaned in pain.

"Shut up." The redhead waved her hand, and Andrew was dropped on the ground. She glared at him. "You're **not** making it better."

Andrew looked at her painfully. "You got your revenge. You killed my best friend. We're even."

"Even? You call this even?" Willow frowned at him. "You think I got satisfactions from what I did?"

"May be not, but let me keep my skin, okay? I'm not bad. I'm not bad anymore." The witch looked at him skeptically. "I'm good. I do good things now."

"Then why do you need lots and lots of blood?"

Andrew opened his month for a moment, closed it, and opened it again. "I'm bad, I'm evil," he resorted. "But I'm protected by powerful forces." He took a step forward, trying to look tough, even though in truth he looked more like a lost puppy than anything. "Forces you can't even begin to imagine, little... girl. If you harm me, you shall know the wrath of he that is darkness and terror. Your blood will boil, and you will know true suffering. Stand down, she-witch. Your defeat is at hand-"

Willow raised an eyebrow. She pointed at Andrew, and he was pushed against the wall by invisible force once again. "Shut your mouth." Andrew immediately stopped talking, looking at her nervously. "I am a she-witch, a very powerful she-witch," she paused and thought for a second. "Or witch, as is more accurate. I'm not to be t-"

"But I-"

"I'm talking!" Willow growled, and Andrew shut up again. "Don't interrupt me, i-insignificant man." She paused and turned towards her left. "Well, can't think of any other words." The redhead shrugged at the empty spot, and Andrew looked even more nervous and started looking around. Willow shook her head a bit as if clearing her thoughts before turning back towards Andrew, and took a step closer. "I'm Willow. I'm death." Andrew swallowed. "If you dare defy me, I will call down my fury, exact fresh vengeance, and make your worst fears come true." She stared hard at him. "Okay?"

Andrew nodded, and Willow immediately pulled him out of the alley.

...

"I don't know why I have to seat at the back-"

"Shut up Andrew." Willow growled, her eyes glared at Andrew's reflection in the rear mirror before focusing on the road again. "I can't." She whispered. "He is human... No. That's Warren. A-and I-"

"Nice car here." Andrew spoke again, his hand smoothing the vinyl cloth of the seat. "Is it-"

Willow stepped on the brake, hard. Andrew squealed as the redhead spun around, her green orbs staring at him angrily. "Shut up before I shut you up." She growled. She turned back towards the front and killed off the engine, before stepping out of the car. "Stay." She ordered, and slammed the door closed.

Andrew watched as Willow walking back and forth at the side road, her hands flying in the air as she rumbled to herself. Suddenly, she halted and turned towards Andrew. Andrew immediately looked away. After some time, the redhead finally opened the car door and stepped into the driver seat.

Andrew watched her nervously. "A-are you alright?"

"I don't like you." Willow said quietly but didn't turn around. "You might think Tara's murder has nothing to do with you. You might think Warren's death is the end of the story. But it never ends, and will never end." She inserted the key into the keyhole and turned the engine on. "Be thankful I'm only taking you to Buffy's house."

For the rest of the ride Andrew didn't say a thing.

...

Xander was researching at the front room with Anya when they heard the front door opened and closed. Willow appeared, holding onto Andrew's leather coat's collar as he held big brown bag of groceries, and pushed him towards them. "Look who I found?"

Xander stood and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Oh this can't be good."

Andrew was about to reply when he paused and turned towards Willow. "Hey! Your hair isn't even black anymore!" The redhead glared at him and smashed him at the back of his head. "Ouch!"

"Serve you right." Anya said.

"Guess who was buying mass amounts of blood at the butcher's shop." Willow pointed at the grocery bag.

Xander took a step towards Andrew, tapping the book he was still holding in his hand. "What're you doing back in town?"

Andrew eyed him up and down. "You'll get nothing out of me, librarian." Xander blinked, and quickly dropped the book back on the coffee table.

"We'll see about that." Anya finally spoke, with an evil smirk on her face.

...

Andrew was now sitting in the empty room of the Summers' house with Xander kneeing before him, tying his wrists to the arms of the chair he was in. "Hey! Be careful with that!" Andrew protested as he watched Anya going through the pockets of his leather coat not so gently. "It's expensive!"

Anya raised an eyebrow. "Is it new?" She asked, before throwing the coat on the floor and stepped on it.

"Hey!" He then turned towards Xander as he tightened the restraint on Andrew's wrist. "Ow!"

"Now," Xander stood and narrowed his eyes at Andrew. "We can do this the hard way. But believe me, this will go **much** easier if you just tell us what you know."

"I haven't done anything wrong."

"Well, then you won't mind if we ask you a few questions."

Andrew squealed in the chair. "Yeah. Okay."

Xander bended down a bit and stared at Andrew in his eyes. "Why were you buying blood at the butcher shop?"

Andrew took a deep breath. "I fell in love with a beautiful vampire girl down in Mexico and we're trying to make a go of it on the straight and narrow and put our lives back together here in Sunnydale." He said in one go.

Anya shoved Xander away and stood right in front of Andrew. "You think this is a game, **junior**! People are dying!" Anya grabbed Andrew's collar and pulled him towards her. "Friends' lives are in danger!"

Xander blinked at his ex-girlfriend. "Anya..."

"Now you want to waste time on deceptions? Not on my watch!" Anya ignored Xander and slapped Andrew across his face, hard.

Before Anya could deliver another slap, Xander grabbed her arm and started pulling her towards the door. "Can I talk to you outside for a second?" He didn't wait for a reply as he left the room, bringing Anya with him.

...

Xander closed the door when he stepped out with Anya. The two looked at each other seriously for a second, before the grins broke out on their faces. "Did you see that? Did you see that?" Anya said excitingly. "I actually made him cry!"

"You were perfect! I was worried I overdid it with the whole 'easy way, hard way' thing."

"No, you were great! I wasn't sure if I should slap him, but then he made me want to slap him, so I thought, okay, slap him!"

"He'll be singing in no time."

"So, what do we do now?" Anya asked.

"Now? We let him stew in his own juices for a bit, then we give him the hard brace."

"Right." Anya turned when she saw Willow moving towards them. "Willow!"

"Hey." Willow smiled back, but the smile was somehow stained. "How's your guy?"

"The weasel wants to sing. He just needs a tune."

Xander grinned. "He's primed. I'll be pumping him in no time." Anya and Willow immediately stared at him strangely. "Um, he'll give us information soon." He quickly added.

"Good. Good."

Xander looked at his friend worried. "Are you alright?"

Anya studied Willow for a moment. "I make Andrew cry." She offered.

Willow smiled thankfully at Anya. "Thanks." She then turned towards Xander. "Look, I need to go out for a moment. Couple of hours, may be. Can you tell Buffy I'll come by later?"

"Sure. Where are you going?"

Willow paused as she heard Xander's question. "Out?" She shrugged, and then left without another word.

...

Buffy held up a bag of pig's blood as Spike sucked from it. Once Spike finished the bag, Buffy sighed, and threw the empty bag into the rubbish bin nearby. She sat on the bed, facing Spike, studying him for a moment. "Better?"

Spike nodded.

"Good."

"I don't remember anything."

"Nothing?"

"It's all flashes here and there, like I'm watching someone else..." He paused. "Do it. Killing people." He said quietly. "I've been losing time for a while now. Waking up in strange places."

Buffy frowned. "When did your chip stop working?"

"I wasn't aware that it had... you know? Not 'til now."

"And the losing time? How long has that been going on?"

"Things have been wonky since I got back, since..."

"You got your soul." Buffy finished it quietly.

Spike nodded. "Figure that was what it's like... it'd been so long since I had one."

"How did you do it?" Spike waited for Buffy to clarify. "How did you get your soul back?"

"Saw a man about a girl..." Spike sighed as he continued. "I went to seek a legend out. Traveled to the other side of the world, made a deal with a demon."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Just like that?"

"No, not just like that." Spike snorted. "There was a price. There were trails, torture, pain and suffering... of sorts."

"Of sorts?"

"Well, it's all relative, isn't it?"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I have come to redefine the words 'pain and suffering' since I fell in love with you."

Buffy looked away. "How can you say that?" She whispered quietly.

"Apparently, I just slaughtered half of Sunnydale, pet. I'm not really worried about being polite anymore."

Buffy stood, her arms crossed against her chest. "So, what? You're feeling for yourself?"

"I'm feeling honest with myself." Spike answered. "You used me."

"Yes."

"You told me that, of course. I never understood it though. Not until now. You hated yourself, and you took it out of me."

Buffy couldn't help but rolled her eyes. "You figured that out just now?"

"Soul's not about moonbeams and pennywhistles, luv. It's about self-loathing. I get it now. Had to travel 'round the world, but I understand you now. I understand the violence inside."

Buffy snorted. "Violence? William the Bloody now has insight into violence?"

"Not the same. As bad as I was, as evil and as wretched as I was, I never truly hated myself back then. Not like I do now."

The slayer didn't answer but just staring at Spike.

...

Xander stepped into the room that Andrew was now in with a glass of water. "How's your face?" The carpenter asked attentively as he set the water down.

"Okay."

"Sorry about that." Xander moved closer and started untying Andrew. "She shouldn't hit you." He shook his head and handed Andrew the glass. "Go on."

Andrew accepted the glass skeptically, smelling it a bit before taking a slip. "That chick's psycho."

Xander's face darkened for a second but quickly returned to normal. "You don't know half of it. She's a vengeance demon, you know?" He sat beside Andrew. "She's bad news."

"This one time I saw her having sex with Spike." Andrew added quickly before taking another slip.

Xander's face darkened the second time but Andrew missed it again. "She killed more men than smallpox."

"Does smallpox still kill people-"

"She's killed a lot of men. She tortures them, anyone who incurs her wrath. One time she..." Xander halted, thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "No. Never mind."

"What?" Andrew blinked.

"It's not important."

"What'd she do?"

Xander leaned forward a bit. "Well... there was this one guy, he, uh, he hurt her real bad, so she paid him back. She killed him, but she did it real slow. See? First she stopped his heart, then she replaced it with darkness, then she made him live his life like that. But he still had to go do his job and see his friends and wake up in the morning and go to bed at night, but he had to do it all empty. Without anything to look forward to. **Ever**."

"Um." Andrew shrugged. "Sounds bad."

"Well, then she-tore-out-his-intestines-and-rubbed-it-in-his-face-and-took-pictures-of-it."

Xander shrugged as he blurred out as if it was nothing, but Andrew, on the other hand, chocked on the water he was drinking and his face turned deadly pale. "Oh God!"

"But she's downstairs now." Xander petted Andrew on his shoulder. "Don't worry about her."

"W-what if-"

"See?" Xander took the glass of water from Andrew's hand calmly. "The thing is, we've all been a little on edge lately. Some bad things have been happening, and the girls are all looking for someone to blame."

"I didn't do anything!"

Anya took the exact moment to storm into the room. "You lying son of bitch!" The ex-vengeance demon pushed the boy onto the floor. "You're going tell us what we need to know, and you're going to tell us right now!" She sat on Andrew, and started slapping him.

"Stop! Stop it!" Andrew screamed.

"Anya no!"

Xander quickly pulled Anya off Andrew. "Get off me Harris!" Anya turned around and slapped Xander hard. Xander looked at Anya dumbly, his hand covering his quickly reddened cheek. The ex-demon mouthed 'I'm sorry' at Xander before turning back towards Andrew. "C'mon, you pipsqueak!" She pulled Andrew up from the floor and started shaking him.

"GET HER OFF ME! I'LL TELL YOU! I'll TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!"

...

"GET HER OFF ME! I'LL TELL YOU! I'll TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!"

Buffy was staring hard at Spike when she heard Andrew's scream from the room next door. "Excuse me." She left, closing the door behind her.

Spike's eyes widened when the door closed, revealing himself who was standing there, smirking.

/Well, we've got ourselves a problem./

...

Buffy pushed open the door, and paused when she saw Andrew sitting on the floor with Anya on top of him, holding his shirt's collar. Anya's arm was frozen in the air, her fist aiming at Andrew's head. Xander was half leaning against the nightstand, his hand holding his redden cheek. The slayer raised an eyebrow. "Everything okay?"

"Fine." Anya answered.

"Okay." Buffy shrugged and left.

...

Buffy was about to open the door when she heard Spike's voice from inside the room. "What do I do? Job half done? Never send a boy to do a man's job." Buffy frowned when she heard chuckles. "Don't deceive me. Never leave me."

The slayer opened the door and looked around, turning back towards Spike when she heard him humming. "I heard you through the door. Who were you talking to?"

Spike slowly turned and looked at Buffy. "Nobody." He said calmly. "I was just keeping myself company."

Buffy looked at the strangely calm and contained Spike. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. How are you?"

"Spike?"

"I'm fine, Buffy. Really. I'm just... feeling a bit puckish, I suppose." Spike shrugged and nodded at the bag of pig's blood on the nightstand. "Do you mind?"

Buffy slowly made her way towards the nightstand, her eyes never once left Spike.

...

Anya had now backed Andrew against the wall, a dangerous smirk on her face. "Now, you can talk, or I can keep hitting you. And believe me: I'd love to keep hitting you."

...

Buffy turned a bit to pick up the bag of blood when Spike suddenly vamped out. He tightened his grabs on the arms of the wooden chair, breaking it, and jumped onto his foot. Buffy immediately let go of the bag and ran towards Spike, but the vampire shoved her away before charging towards the opposite wall.

...

Andrew stood with his back against the wall. "... we needed more blood to activate the seal of Danthaz-"

Suddenly, two hands broke through the thin wall behind Andrew, taking hold of his head and pulled him backwards towards the next room. Andrew screamed as Spike roared and bended down, biting hard on his neck.

Buffy quickly ran towards Andrew throwing Spike off towards the wall nearby. Xander and Anya immediately pulled the unconscious boy away. Spike looked up, somehow confused, when Buffy stood over him and delivered a kick into his face. The last thing Spike saw was himself standing behind Buffy, looking at him disappointed.

...

Willow stepped into the underground tomb where had been served as Oz's cage after their high school graduation, the same place where Oz had cheated on Willow with another werewolf that led to their breakup. The cage had not been used ever since Oz had left, and dust covered the keypad on the silver bar.

The redhead stepped into the cage and closed the cage, locking it from inside. She slowly paced back and forth, her figure touching and tracing the silver bars.

/It's Oz's cage./ Paused. /Should I be jealous/

Willow didn't answer as Tara stepped into the tomb, standing just outside the cage, watching.

/You're not mad at me, are you? I mean, it's Andrew we were talking about./

Willow stopped, her eyes staring at the dirty wall opposite her, but still refused to say anything.

/I need you./

Tara reached out, her hand went right pass the middle of the bar and touched Willow's cheek softly. Willow closed her eyes, and let herself got lost into the cool chill coming off from the blond's palm. "Hurt me."

/W-what/

Willow's eyes opened and she turned towards Tara, her eyes shone with resolve. "Hurt me." Tara's hand retreated quickly as if it was burnt. "Hurt me so I know this is real." The witch took a step towards her dead girlfriend. "Hurt me so I know you are real." She whispered.

Tara stared at Willow with her mouth opened. After a moment of silence, a smile slowly appeared on Tara's face. She stepped through the bars and stopped right in front of Willow. The redhead didn't even blink as Tara's figure tip reached for Willow's cheek, her thumb nail dug into Willow's skin and sliced down, leaving a thin tail of blood against the pale skin.

Willow closed her eyes again as Tara leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on Willow's lips before slowly licking away the blood on the witch's face. Willow opened her eyes for the second time, staring hard into the blue of the blond, before taking Tara's face into her hands, and kissed her hard.

Tara kissed back with a satisfy smirk on her face.

...

Buffy sat in a chair opposite Anya and Dawn who were sitting on the couch in the front room. "He didn't seem to want anything to do with me." The slayer explained. "I mean, he just pushed me aside and charged at the wall."

Dawn looked up when Xander walked into the room. "How's 'what's his name'?"

Xander shrugged. "He has got a good chunk taken out of his neck, but he'll be all right. Had to tie him up again, but mainly just to keep him from scratching his bandages." He then turned towards Buffy. "What the **hell** happened up there?"

"I don't know. Spike and I were having a conversation, and he was fine. I mean, you know, fine as Spike can be." Buffy frowned. "And then I went to check on you guys. When I got back, it was like... like he was a completely different person."

"Different like 'William the Bloody' type different?" Xander asked.

Buffy thought for a moment. "He was talking to someone. I heard through the door... he was having this conversation. And then he started singing."

"Maybe it's another musical." Anya supplied, and immediately earned a glare from Buffy. "A much crappier musical."

Buffy thought for a moment. "He mentioned something about a song in the cellar. And he changed there, too... I mean instantly became another person."

"Trigger."

Everyone turned and looked at Xander. "The horse?" Anya asked.

"No. In his head. It's a trigger." Xander explained. "It's a brainwashing term. It's how the military makes sleeper agents. They brainwash operatives and condition them with a specific trigger, like a song, that makes them drastically change at a moment's notice."

"Is this left over from your days in the Army?"

"No. This is left over from every army movie I have ever seen." Xander shrugged. "But it makes sense. Andrew said something about Warren's ghost haunting him, right? Well, what if Spike's seeing some of these ghosts too? And they figured out a way only not to haunt him but how to control him?"

Dawn frowned. "Warren's haunting Andrew?"

"Told him to open the seal." Buffy said. "And Spike did say he has been seeing things since I found him in the basement." She turned to Xander. "This trigger. How do we holster... safety..." The slayer threw up her hands. "I don't know guns." She sighed. "How do we make it stop?"

"Well, usually the operative completes his task, and either blows his head off or steals a submarine."

"All right." Buffy stood. "I need information. If Spike's a bomb, then I need to know how to diffuse him. Willow's checking on demons-" She paused and looked around. "Where's she?"

"Out."

"Out where?"

Xander and Anya looked at each other, and then shrugged.

"Great." Buffy sighed. "Dawn, call Willow. Fill her in and tell her to come over right away." She looked around at her family. "I need to know exactly what we're dealing with."

...

"So... he gets his soul back, starts seeing spooky things, and goes extra-extra-crazy?" Willow frowned as she listened into her mobile phone. "It's not good. What did Buffy say- oh. My laptop is in the kitchen... yeah. The crawling should be done. Ah-ha. You go ahead. Yeah. I'll come by later... no. No. It's okay. Sure. Bye." The witch sighed as she turned off her mobile phone, and looked down at the blond that was now resting on her lap. "Honey..."

/The slayer's summoning you/

"Sorta." Willow whispered. She cracked her head a bit and looked up at the small window in the cage. "It's night already."

/Well, we did have a good afternoon./

Tara giggled.

/Do you want to have another go/

"But Buffy-"

/Dawnie's helping her, isn't she? They won't miss you for another hour. Besides.../

Willow couldn't help but swallowed when she saw Tara sat up and licked her lips, a predictor look in her eyes.

/Our score hasn't settled yet./

...

Outside the Summers' house, a group of robed men gathered in the dark, waiting quietly.

Tara smirked.

/Not by a long shot./

...

**- LONDON, ENGLAND : INSIDE WATCHER'S COUNCIL HEADQUARTERS : PRESENT - **

...

Inside headquarter of the Watcher Council, people were running around, some busy reading reports while others talking on the phone or to other co-workers. Quentin Travers was sitting at the front of the huge table in the middle of the room, talking to another watcher as he reported to him.

"They took our files and wiped out our records. We've lost contact with operations in Munich, Switzerland and Rome, and we've got casualty confirmations coming in from as far away as Melbourne."

Travers was about to reply when a female watcher ran towards him. "Sir, we're crippled."

"It's alright, Lydia." Travers stood. "We are still masters of our fate, still captains of our souls." He then turned towards the room. "Ladies and gentlemen," other watchers who were busy working stopped and turned towards him. "Our fears have been confirmed. The First Evil has declared all-out war on this institution. Their first volleys proved most effective. I, for one, think it's time we struck back." He started giving orders to his workers. "Give me confirmations on all remaining operatives. Visuals and tactical. Highest alert. Get them here as soon as possible, and begin preparations for mobilization. Once we're accounted for, I want to be ready to move.

Lydia frowned. "Sir?"

"We'll be paying a visit to the hell mouth. My friends, these are the times that define us. Proverbs twenty-forth sixth: 'O, by wise council, you shall make your war'."

...

**- LONDON, ENGLAND : OUTSIDE WATCHER'S COUNCIL HEADQUARTERS : PRESENT - **

...

The Watcher's Council's headquarter exploded. Fire consumed the whole area as the stone building collapsed into ruin.

...


	7. Chapter 6

**Loosen End (previous: BtVS S7 Version 2)**

**Chapter 6**

by Cynthia Taz

* Disclaimer and other information on Prologue.

Notes:

- Finally - sometime to do some writing... :)

- The song "Where" belongs to Lisbeth Scott

**/ / = Voice **

* * *

~.~.~.~

Buffy, holding a bowl of water and a towel, stopped at the top of the stairs towards the basement. She stared at Spike, who was now lying on the floor with shackles around his waist and feet which connected to the wall behind him. The slayer sighed, kneeing in front of the chained vampire and carefully washing the dry blood off his face.

Spike stirred a bit and opened his eyes. "Did I hurt anybody?"

"You took a good bite out of Andrew."

"Who?"

"Tucker's brother."

"Oh."

"He'll be okay."

Spike frowned. "I don't remember."

Buffy stood. "It's okay." She matched towards the sink and started cleaning the bowl.

"Buffy, I don't know why."

Buffy sighed. "We think we do. Something's playing you. It figured out a way to control you." Spike sat up. "The gang is researching right now. Xander has this theory that you're being triggered-"

"Kill me."

Buffy spun around to face him. "What?"

"Buffy, you have to kill me."

"You don't understand. When I left the room earlier, I heard you talking to some-"

"Do you have any idea what I'm capable of?"

Buffy's face darkened. "I was in the cellar with you. I saw what you did."

"I'm not talking about the cellar. The people in the cellar got off easy. I'm talking about me. Buffy, you have **never** met the real me."

"Believe me." The slayer crossed her arms defensively. "I'm well aware of what you're capable of."

"No. You got off easy too." Spike stood, his eyes hardened for a second. "Do you know how much blood you can drink from a girl before she dies? I do. You see, the trick is to drink just enough to know how to damage them jussssst enough, so they'll still be crying when you..." He paused, taking a deep breath. "It's not worth if they don't cry."

"It's not your fault." Spike snorted as Buffy continued. "You're not the one doing this."

"I already did it. It's already done. You wanna know what I've done to girls at Dawn's age? This is me, Buffy. You've got to kill me before I get out." The vampire pleaded.

"We can keep you locked up. Keep you here and we'll figure out."

"Have you ever really asked yourself why you can't do it? Off me? After everything I've done to you, to people around you. It's not love. We both know that."

"You fought by my side. You've saved lives. You've helped."

"Don't do that." Spike rolled his eyes. "Don't rationalize this into some noble act. We both know the truth." He looked away. "You like men who hurt you."

"No."

"You need the pain we cause you. You need the hate." Spike turned back towards Buffy. "You need it to do your job, to be the slayer."

"No. I don't hate like that. Not you, or myself. Not anymore." The slayer shook her head. "You think you have insight now because your soul's drenched in blood? You don't know me. You don't even know you. Was that you who killed those people in the cellar? Was that you who waited for those girls?

"There's no one else."

"That's not true." Buffy took a step towards the vampire. "Listen to me. You're not alive because of hate or pain. You're alive because I saw you changed. Because I saw your penance."

Spike suddenly jumped forward, and Buffy took a step back, watching as he struggled against the chains. "Window dressing." He growled.

"Easier, wouldn't it? If it's an act?" Buffy asked calmly. "But it's not." She stepped forward again. "You faced the monster inside of you and you fought back. You risked everything to be a better man."

"Buffy-"

"And you can be." Buffy stood face to face with Spike. "You are. You may not see it, but I do." Her voice softened. "I do. I believe in you, Spike."

The vampire and the slayer stared at each other, the quiet basement intruded by the music coming from upstairs.

~.~.~.~

Willow pushed herself up from the dirty ground inside the cage that once belonged to Oz, picking up the sweater that she had discarded earlier, and putting it back on. She reached towards the keypad of the cage, pressing the pin number, and let herself out.

_[ on this half lit day, with your crown beneath your wing ]_

~.~.~.~

The vampire and the slayer stared at each other, one with the face of hope and another with the face of resolve. Suddenly, the lights flicked out, and a group of robbed men busted into the basement through the window, shoving Buffy away before matching towards Spike.

And the fighting began.

~.~.~.~

_[ every word just echoes, and the empty world sings ]_

The redhead slowly made her way down the quite path, until she reached the water fountain. She stopped, her eyes staring hard at the water surface, at the empty eyes that were staring back at her.

Then, Willow kneed, and started vomiting.

~.~.~.~

Xander, Anya and Dawn were gathering around in the dining room researching when robed men broke into the house, breaking down doors and smashing windows. The trio watched in horror when the attackers uncovered their hoods, facing them with no eyes but big scars on their skin.

~.~.~.~

_[ where have you gone, my feather light heart? ]_

Passing through the main street, Willow stopped in front of a closed shop window, and stared into the weak reflection that was looking back at her. A single tear rolled down on her right cheek, matching the thin red line on her left.

_[ I never imagined I could leave. ]_

~.~.~.~

Andrew was lying on the bed with his hands tied up when a robed man kicked open the door. He screamed and rolled away as the attacker lunged at him, barely avoiding the dragger he was holding. Buffy, who had been following him from downstairs, ran into the room and kicked away the dragger. The two started exchanging kicks and fists as Andrew hid at the corner, watching nervously.

~.~.~.~

_[ in the glistening of the lost and open sky ]_

Willow was about to reach the street where Buffy's house located in when she stopped. Instead of continuing her journey, she sat down on the side of the road, and stared up at the night sky.

A cool hand touched her arms, and the redhead knew who it belonged to immediately. Even so, she looked down, watching as the hand slid into her own.

_[ tiny piece of you sits, simple wish waits for reply ]_

~.~.~.~

Two robed men ran into the room as the slayer knocked one unconscious. Andrew took the chance to start crawling towards the exit, but Buffy grabbed him from behind and started swinging him at the attacker, knocking them off onto the floor before throwing Andrew back onto the bed. The attacker picked up the forgotten dragger from the floor and lunged at Buffy again, but the slayer grabbed his wrists, twisting and stabbing the attacker with the same dragger in one smooth motion.

~.~.~.~

_[ where have you gone, my feather light heart? ]_

Willow stared at the familiar hand, the one that belonged to her dead lover, the one that was now squeezing her own. Slowly, she looked up, and stared into the deep blue eyes.

And under the moonlight and clam sky, they kissed.

_[ you mustn't forget what love can see. ]_

~.~.~.~

Xander rushed into the room as the attacker fell onto the floor. "Buffy?"

"Xander. Dawn-"

"She's okay." Xander frowned as he looked down at the dead men. "That's it? I thought there's more."

Buffy looked around, her eyes widened as realization hit her. "Spike."

Andrew watched as Buffy and Xander rushed out of the room. His eyes turned towards the two men on the floor. "H-hey! Wait! Don't leave me here!" He whined, following gang down the stairs.

~.~.~.~

Willow opened her eyes again, a ghost smile on her lips as she stared into Tara's blue, before slowly letting go of her dead lover's hand and matched towards the Summers' house.

~.~.~.~

Willow's eyes widened as she spotted the broken glasses and hanging door of the Summers' resident. Quickly, she ran into the Summers house, and found Anya and Dawn sitting on the couch with Buffy standing nearby, covering them with a blanket. "What's happening? Are you guys okay?" She quickly looked around. "Xander-"

"I'm fine." Xander said as he was marching out from the kitchen with two cups of what seemed to be hot chocolate and handed them to Anya and Dawn.

"What happened?"

"A group of creepy men came and took Spike." Anya answered as a matter of fact as she took a slip of the offered beverage. It was then she noticed the red line on Willow's cheek. "Willow, your face..."

Willow's hand reached for the scratch on her cheek. "It's nothing." She turned towards Buffy. "They want Spike?"

Buffy nodded. "They wanted Spike all along. We were just in the way." She explained, and moved towards one of the attackers' body nearby, studying it.

Xander thought for a moment and frowned. "They were so fast, so organized, like-"

"I know these guys." Everyone turned towards the slayer as she kneed in front of the body. "I fought them before. It isn't some demon. It's all the same!" She jumped to her feet and turned towards her family. "Spike's ghosts... Andrew... from beneath us? It's all the same thing. I know we're up against." Buffy's eyes hardened. "The First."

~.~.~.~

Standing just outside the hanging door was Tara, smirking.

~.~.~.~

Willow was sitting at the table with Buffy, one facing the laptop and another facing a pile of books, but neither of them were really focusing on the text in front of them. The witch was staring, but not really seeing the words on the screen of her laptop, while the slayer was staring at her best friend.

Nearby, Dawn and Anya was sitting on the couch that had pushed towards the middle of the front room, watching Xander standing in front of the broken windows, boarding them up. "It's a loop... like the Mummy Hand." The carpenter muttered to himself as he nailed another board. "I'm doomed to replace these windows for all eternity." He shook his head. "You know, maybe we should just board these up until things are less hellmouth-y."

Buffy did not seem to register Xander's words, instead concentrating on the redhead. "Will?"

When the redhead didn't reply, the blonde leaned forward a bit and tapped her friend's shoulder. The redhead jumped and turned towards the slayer. "Wa-?"

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked and turned towards the clock nearby. "It's pretty late. May be you should take a nap or something?"

Willow shrugged. "My class isn't until late afternoon tomorrow. I'll deal. What about you? You still got work tomorrow."

It was Buffy's turn to shrug. "Slayer trauma. I'm still kinda jumpy after the attack." Willow nodded, turning back towards the screen and started typing away. "Why... why did you move out?" Both Dawn and Anya looked up when they heard the question, while Xander halted his hammering.

The redhead halted for a second before replying with a totally unrelated question. "Are you sure this thing's called 'the First'?"

Buffy frowned at the change of subject but answered anyway. "Pretty sure. It claimed to be the original evil, the one that came before anything else."

Anya snorted and rolled her eyes. "Please. How many times have I heard that line in my demon days? 'I'm so rotten, they don't even have a word for it. I'm bad. Baddy bad bad bad. Does it make you horny?'" Everyone stared at her. "Or terrified. Whatever."

Buffy shook her head. "It wasn't a line. When I came up against this thing, I felt it. It was ancient and enormous. It almost got Angel to kill himself. God knows what it'll get Spike do if we don't recuse him soon."

~.~.~.~

/You'll have to excuse the spectacle, but I've always been a bit of a sucker for the old classics./

Spike opened his eyes, and found himself being tied onto a wooden wheel, face to face with, well, himself. The vampire did not reply, but simply glaring at him.

/Oh, don't look at me that way. I wanted to do this more subtle-like./

Spike/First smirked.

/My bingers have a tendency to call attention to themselves./

Spike screamed in pain as a robed man appeared with a huge knife and cut him with it. Blood spilling out like river, rolling down Spike's chest.

/You're the one who couldn't hold the end of the bargain. You're the one who couldn't take care of what's-her-name. You're the one who had to make breakthroughs and learn something about himself./

Spike screamed again when the knife connected with him the second time.

/So now, you're the one who gets to do the honors./

Spike/First turned into Buffy and smirked.

/I'm glad it worked out this way. I was going to bleed Andrew, but you look waaaaaaay better with your shirt off./

Buffy/First nodded at the nearby man, and he moved towards the chain nearby and started pulling, hoisting the wooden wheel that Spike was tied onto into the air directly above the Seal of Danthazar. Blood dipping down the seal, and slowly, the wheel glowed brighter and brighter, the pointed tips of the pentagram at its centre fold up one by one to form a pyramid.

/To be honest, I'm getting a little tired of subtle. I think it's about time we brought some authority to our presence./

The pyramid sank into the ground first, following by the remaining piece of the seal. Spike's eyes widened as a leather arm appeared from other, quickly followed by a disfigured face.

/Now, Spike, wanna see what a real vampire looks like?/

The monster stood, baring its fangs as it growled towards the blond vampire.

~.~.~.~

Buffy sighed as she closed the book she had been staring for the last hour, frustrated that the gang had not been able to find a shred of information about the First. "Give me the Watchers Chronicles again?"

A book was handed to her, and Buffy took it. "Thanks."

"Can I get you something else, baby?" Buffy froze, and slowly turned towards the voice. "How about some tea?"

"M-mum?" Buffy swallowed. "No... you're not real."

Joyce smiled. "Okay. So it that a slang like 'you are not for real' or..."

"You're the First."

"Oh baby." Joyce shook her head. "You are so tired that you are not making sense. Maybe you should get some sleep?"

"No..."

"You cannot win this thing not if you don't rest-"

"Stop... stop... it's a lie..."

Joyce signed. "I don't want to scare you, but I want you to take care. You need to **see**, Buffy. You need to **wake up**."

"What-"

"Buff, wake up."

Buffy looked up, and found Xander standing in front of her, instead of her mother who was no where in sight. "Did you see it?"

"There's nothing to see. You're just doing a little dream talk. That's all."

Buffy frowned, and looked down at the blanket that was now on the floor. She turned towards the clock nearby, and found that it was already after six. She must have dosed off half way into the research. "Oh."

Sensing the confusion, Xander frowned. "Are you okay?" He looked at her, concerned. "What did you see?"

"Nothing." Buffy looked down at the pile of books in front of her - more specifically, the Watcher's Chronicles. "It's nothing."

~.~.~.~

Willow closed the door to her house, and put the keys on the stand nearby.

/Hey./

Willow looked up, and found Tara standing there. She did not reply. Instead, she threw her bag onto the floor, and walked past her into the front room.

/Will?/

Willow sat on the couch, her eyes staring hard at the wall opposite her.

/You okay? I though you are going to class this afternoon./

Willow did not answer as she continued to stare at the wall. After sometime, she finally spoke. "You're not her."

Tara moved closer to the couch, and hugged the redhead from behind her, placing kisses along the redhead's pale neck. /Who, honey?/

"Tara."

Tara/First halted. Then slowly, a smile appeared on her face. /Does it matter?/

Willow stood, pushing Tara/First away from her. "You're not Tara! You're evil! A-and you kidnapped Spike! You tried to kill us!"

/I tried to kill them. Not you./

Tara/First walked around the couch, and stopped in front of Willow.

/And you honestly think that after what you did, you will ever see your precious Tara again?/

"Shut up."

/C'mon now. You and I both know that no way you will get to see her again. After all, she is pure and innocent, while you are... not./

"That doesn't give you the right to pretend to be her!" The redhead snapped when Tara/First tried to reach for her. "STOP! JUST STOP! You're **NOT HER**!"

/Fine./ Tara/First turned into Jenny in a blink of an eye. /Better?/

Much to the First's surprise, the redhead jumped forward, and pushed the Jenny/First onto the ground. She sat on top of her, her green orbs darkened with power as she held Jenny/First arms above its head, growling. "Stop playing games!"

/Seems like you're the one who want to play games./

Jenny/First cocked her head.

/Who would have guess little Willow has a thing for her teacher?/

Willow blinked, finally taking notice of their position. Jenny/First took the opportunity to flip the redhead backwards, before sitting on the witch with her arms pinned above her head, just as the redhead did seconds ago.

/Naughty Willow, should I bend you over the teacher's table and spank you?/

"Let go!"

Willow struggled, but Jenny/First held firm.

/No./

"Why? Why are you doing this? Why don't you just kill me and be done with it?"

/You really should listen to what your teacher was saying, Willow. I told you, I don't want you dead. I want you to be by my side, to-/

Willow let out a horror laugh. "What? To destory the world? Been there, done that, got the souvenirs."

/I don't need the world to end to get what I want. But if you like this better, we can always arrange-/

"NO!"

Jenny/First simply smirked and bend down, its face was so close to Willow that their noses almost touched.

/I can do this with you, or without you. But things are going to change, Willow. And I want you by my side when it does./

Jenny/First let go of Willow's hands, even though she refused to move away from Willow's lap.

/You're not stupid. You may not know what I am, but you knew I'm not that Tara for some time now, haven't you?/

Willow looked away.

/But I can still be her. I know that, and you know that. That's why you are still here, instead of running back to your slayer, isn't it? Because even if I may not be her.../

Jenny/First turned herself back to Tara.

/I'm the only Tara that you can have./

"I... I don't want to be evil..."

Tara/First's hand reached for the redhead's cheek, touching it lovely. Willow closed her eyes, a single tear rolled down from the corner, but the redhead did not move away.

/It is not about being evil, sweetie. It is about being with Tara./

Willow turned and opened her eyes, staring at the blond ghost in front of her.

/Let me be your Tara, Willow./

Tara/First bent down, and kissed the tears away.

/Be with me./

~.~.~.~

Anya and Dawn stood in front of the sleeping Andrew, who was once again being tied up on a chair, staring at him intensively. Suddenly, Anya held up the glass in her hand, and splashed the water on his face. Andrew shuddered, but did not wake.

"That was something." Anya said.

Dawn frowned for a second before turning towards Anya. "Maybe if you should throw hot water on him."

"Good thinking."

They turned as one and walked towards the kitchen, but when Buffy came into the room, as one, they turned towards the couch, and sat on it.

"Hey." "Hi." Anya and Dawn greeted, their eyes staring at the television - that was not turned on. "Nothing." Dawn added.

Buffy frowned. "What?"

"Oh." Dawn side-glanced at Buffy before quickly turned her attention back at the blank screen of the television. "Um, I though you were going to ask what we were doing."

"No," Buffy raised an eyebrow. "I was going to ask-"

The slayer's words were cut short as Andrew coughed. "Oh! Looks who's awake!" Dawn jumped out of the couch, quickly followed by Anya. Buffy's other eyebrow raised as she watched the two ran towards Andrew.

"Silly Andrew." Anya said as she stopped in front of the man, slapping his chin soundly. "Drooling all over yourself."

Andrew blinked and opened his eyes. "I- I was about to be dead." He looked over Dawn and Anya's shoulder and found Buffy. "You saved me."

"For the time being." Buffy stepped up between Dawn and Anya, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "But if you don't tell us what we need to know, then I'm gonna offer you to the First on a silver platter and let him chop you into tiny pieces."

"The first what?"

"The name of the evil thing that pretended to be Warren and get you to kill Jonathan." Anya supplied.

"Oh." Andrew frowned. "Not very ominous sounding."

Dawn frowned. "No, it's if you understand the context..."

"No. An evil name should be like Lex, or Voldemort, or-"

"Hey!" Buffy glared at the other three. "I was intimidating here!"

"Sorry." Andrew pouted. "Go ahead."

Buffy sighed. "Forget it. Where's the seal?"

~.~.~.~

Willow sat under the shower, feeling nothing even as hot water raining down her back, redden her skin.

/It's not going to help, you know./

The redhead looked up, her dull eyes staring into the general direction where her dead lover was standing.

/Don't tell me you are trying to drown yourself in the shower./

Silence.

/Or are you having naughty thoughts?/

Silence.

/Willow?/ When dull eyes continued to stare pass her, a frown, quickly followed by concern, creep onto the gentle face that once belonged to Tara. /Will?/ Cool touch on the hot cheek, but the redhead did not response at all. /Will? Willow? You're scaring me.../

Slowly, the green orbs focused on Tara/First. "It's okay." Willow whispered, as she leaned forward into the cool embrace. "It's okay now... Buffy will need my help... she will find a way somehow... and we'll get through this... we'll stop them..." The confused expression on Tara/First's face slowly turned into grin as she heard the last whisper. "... we'll kill them all."

~.~.~.~

The gang plus Andrew walked around the labyrinth like basement of Sunnydale High; Andrew was walking at the front with Xander, while Buffy and Dawn were at the back. "Stop stalling." Xander growled at Andrew as they walked into yet again another dead end.

"I'm not!" Andrew whined as he looked around. "It's here somewhere..."

"You said that hours ago."

"I know!" Andrew led the gang back to another junction. "Um..." He frowned. "Around this corner." Paused. "I think."

Buffy narrowed her eyes. "You better be right this time."

"I told you! I'm not sure!"

"Well, maybe you should get sure. I'm sick of all the run-around with you-" Xander paused when he was led into a room. "Whoa. Check out the goat-heady badness."

Everyone looked down at the huge metal pentagram with a horned goat head. "What is it for?" Dawn asked.

"I don't know. Something not good. It didn't work 'cos there wasn't enough blood." Andrew shrugged and turned around, wanting to leave, but Buffy, who was standing at the back, crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay." Andrew turned back towards the seal.

"There's blood on this." Dawn moved towards a huge wooden wheel nearby. "Lots." She turned towards Buffy. "Looks like the First had made another sacrifice..." She frowned. "Or a music video."

"The seal could have been activated. I bet that's what the First needed Spike for."

Andrew saw the look on Buffy's face as she commented, and immediately threw up his hands. "That wasn't there before, I swear! I had nothing to do with that!"

"Thanks for clearing that up 'cos otherwise we might have though you were up to no good here at the satanic manhole cover." Xander rolled his eyes. "You killed your best friend!"

"He's in a place of joy and peace! He told me!"

Dawn took a step forward and smashed Andrew's at the back of his head. "Nobody told you, you little monkey! You got tricked by a fake ghost."

"Boys, can we save the encounter session?" Buffy shook her head. "We need to cover this thing up." She grabbed the shovels nearby and handed it to others. "Whatever it does, we can't leave it exposed like this."

Everyone sighed, and started shoving dirt to cover the seal.

~.~.~.~

After covering the seal, the gang made their way out of the school basement. Xander and Andrew were at the front with Buffy and Dawn at the back.

"Man, this place gives me creeps." Andrew whined. "It's like in Wonder Woman, issue 297 to 299-"

"'Catacombs'? Yeah..." Xander nodded and smiled just as Andrew did the same.

"**That was cool**."

Both Xander and Andrew halted. The two of them looked at each other, surprised that they had said the same thing at the same time. After couple of seconds to recover, Xander frowned and pushed Andrew. "Move it." He growled, not believing that he had just agreed with Andrew.

Dawn shook her head at Xander before turning towards Buffy. "So what next?" She asked. "We found the seal, but no Spike."

Buffy sighed. "I don't know. The First was camped underground last time I found him, but-" She halted when Principal Wood appeared from around the corner with a shovel in his hand. "Principle Wood?"

Wood blinked. "Buffy? Oh hey." He looked at her with confusion. "I thought you were, um..."

"Sick?" Dawn plugged in immediately. "She was. Vomiting and oozing from various places and-"

"Yes, I remember. So, please, don't go on." The principal pleaded.

"Oh." Dawn nodded. "But it's amazing. The doctor gave her some cream-"

"Pills." Buffy and Dawn paused, looking at each other. "And cream." Buffy turned back towards the man. "I'm all better now." She claimed, her eyes moved towards the shovel in the principle's hand.

"Oh, yeah, um... apparently somebody left this in the courtyard. I was just returning it."

Buffy smiled. "That's some full-service principal-ing."

"I try." Principal Wood smiled, and looked down at the shovel Buffy was holding.

"Oh. I was... I was down here helping Dawn with a school project."

Dawn quickly added. "For science."

"We buried a... um... time capsule."

"Hello people of the future! Kids of today like Red Bull, and, um, Jackass! Ha! Ha!" Dawn laughed nervously.

Seeing Dawn rather poor attempt on explaining, the slayer pulled her sister away. "We better go."

The two were about to leave when Principal called out. "Buffy?" The slayer halted immediately. "You know, if you're feeling better, I could really use you back at work. I've been wait-listing kids who really want to see you."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I was just... I've been ill and stuff."

"No, no. It's fine. I understand. It's just, things are starting to back up."

"Well, I'll be there tomorrow. No problem. One-hundred percent ooze free."

Principal Wood raised an eyebrow. "Good."

"Okay."

Buffy and Dawn walked away. The principal started at them with an unreadable look on his face.

~.~.~.~

"I am just not sure if I can do it."

Anya said nothing as she put some candles around the bowl that was now in front of the redhead on the dinner table. Buffy was standing at the doorway, watching, while Dawn was sitting nearby, working on Willow's notebook.

"I know you can, Will."

Willow gave a pain smile to Buffy before watching Anya preparing for the spell.

Xander made his way towards Buffy from the front room. "How's it going?"

Buffy turned towards Xander. "Dawn's trying to find out anything she can about the Seal of Danzalthar. Will's about to do a locator spell, see-" she yawned a little. "See if we can find the First."

Xander frowned. "Why don't you go get some rest? You haven't slept for like two days. We'll call you if we find anything."

Buffy shook her head. "Can't sleep. Too much going on."

"It'll be okay, Buff." Xander watched as Willow started pouring some sands into the bowl while Anya was about to light one of the candles. We've faced this kind of stuff before."

"You don't see the First. I did. I felt it. It was like-"

Suddenly, Anya screamed. Buffy and Xander turned around, just in time to see Anya got thrown away from the table towards the corner of the room. Dawn jumped up and quickly back away from Willow, while Willow's hair suddenly turned black, just as her eyes. She screamed.

"WILL!" Buffy ran towards Willow, but before she could even take the second step, a bolt shout out from the redhead's hand and knocked her flying into the front room. Buffy's eyes widened as she watched Willow stood and turned towards her, her dead black orbs staring holes into her.

"BIG MISTAKE." She held out her hand, and invisible force held Buffy by the neck and pull her up into the air.

Xander, taking the chance that Willow was focusing on Buffy, ran for the glowing bowl and threw it against the wall. The bowl shattered, the glow disappeared, and Willow collapsed just as her hair turned red and her eyes turned green again.

"WILL!" Buffy fell back onto the floor, and without even a sightly hesitation, she crawled forward, collecting the redhead into her lap as Willow crying and trashing against her. "WILL!"

"Nononononononono..."

"It's okay Will. Shh." Buffy cooed, smoothing the redhead and placed a soft kiss on her temple. "It's gone now. You're okay now."

"No... too close... it's not... please... don't... I can't..."

"We won't. I promise, okay? We won't use magic to fight this thing until we know what we're doing."

"I'm sorry... I'm so so sorry..."

~.~.~.~

Buffy picked up her coat from the couch as was about to move towards the front door when she saw Dawn and Anya walking down from the stairs. "How's Will?"

"Shaken up." Dawn commented, and sent an evil glare at Anya. "Anya drugged her."

"What?" Xander, who stood behind Buffy, turned towards his ex-girlfriend with wide eyes.

"It's just a sleeping pill." Anya shrugged. "She needs to clam down."

Buffy shook her head. "Just look after her." She put on her coat and moved towards the foyer.

"wait." Xander turned towards the slayer and put his hand on her shoulder. "At least let me come with you."

"I'm going alone."

"You said it yourself. You don't know how to fight the First, or even where it is."

"No Xander." Buffy said firmly. "It's out there, it's hurting my friends; I'll find it." She pulled the front door opened, but halted when she saw Giles standing there, looking at her, surprised. "Giles."

"Buffy." Giles looked up, and smiled.

Buffy blinked for a second, her legs automatically moved forward, looking for the fatherly comfort that the slayer could always find surrounding Giles - only to be cut off when three figures appeared.

"Nice place." The first girl said, looking around. "Bit of a mess though."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. She was about to open her mouth when the second girl walked in, nodding at the slayer. Buffy watched as the two girls wandered into the front room, when the third girl appeared, staring at her. "**This** is a slayer?" She asked the watcher standing just outside the door, shook her head, before following the others into the front room.

Buffy raised her other eyebrow, and turned back towards Giles.

"Well, huh..." Giles, in his true fashion, took off his glasses and started polishing it. "Sorry to barge in. We have a slight... apocalypse."

~.~.~.~

Willow could feel cool hand smoothing her hair, and knew that it won't be long before the pills Anya had forced on her to take effect soon. "No." She snapped away the cool comfy hand, and turned towards its owner.

Tara/First smiled.

/No what?/

"You know what." Willow stared at 'her'. "I felt it. When you..." She looked away. "I don't want it."

/But it felt good, wasn't it? To let **it** out?/

Willow turned to the other side, her eyes staring at the far wall.

/Besides, the slayer will back off now. She won't make you do any spell anymore./

"Like you did?" Tara/First did not answer, instead resumed smoothing the redhead's hair. "Are you going to kill Spike?"

/Do you want me to?/

Paused. "No?"

/You sound hesitated./

"I can't really stop you if you want to kill him. I don't even know where you have stashed him."

/Maybe so, but I won't./ Willow turned towards Tara/First again, looking at her curiously. /I won't kill him./ The First bended down and placed a cool kiss on her forehead. /For you./

Willow stared at Tara/First for a moment, before closing her eyes again. "Hold me." She whispered.

Cool arms surrounded the redhead's torso, and the last thing the redhead heard before sleep claimed her was the familiar voice whispered into her ear. /Always./

~.~.~.~


End file.
